


paradise awaits

by bisexualbarry



Category: Deadpool - All Media Types, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Mercenaries, Minor Character Death, Morally Grey Peter Parker, Peter Parker isn't Spider-Man, Shooting Guns, Slow Burn, Spideypool Big Bang 2020, Treasure Hunting, Uncharted AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-18 20:02:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 32,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29123862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bisexualbarry/pseuds/bisexualbarry
Summary: “For those who prove worthy, paradise awaits…”Fifteen years after assuming his childhood best friend died, jaded treasure hunter Peter Parker comes out of an early retirement when Wade Wilson comes back into his life. Now fully scarred and clearly hiding secrets, Wade drags Peter back into the thrill of searching for legendary pirate Captain Henry Avery’s lost treasure.Fighting for their life from the Shoreline mercenaries chasing after them, Peter and Wade continue the dangerous search of a pirate treasure worth 400 million, at least. It’s too bad their ex-partner, Harry Osborn, wants them dead to take the treasure all for himself.
Relationships: Michelle Jones/Peter Parker (past), Peter Parker/Wade Wilson
Comments: 14
Kudos: 28
Collections: Spideypool Big Bang - The 2020 Collection





	1. the lure of adventure

**Author's Note:**

> hot DAMN, this was a ride. ive been meaning to write this ever since i played the game, im just excellent at procrastinating xD
> 
> many many MANY thanks to my betas [jen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/riseofthefallenone), [atem](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Atemluver), and [wolf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsukiwolf42) who have all lent a hand polishing this beauty into something legible
> 
> especially jen, who also acted like a cheer reader and general encouragement throughout most of the process and bribed me with videos and pictures of her cat to get shit done. i also got her to binge watch the uncharted games on youtube, so win-win :D
> 
> and finally, the BIGGEST thank you to [doc](https://sendadoc.tumblr.com) who made the stunning art for this fic (and let me babble excitedly about the beautiful scenery of the fic numerous times,,,,,,,,thank you again)
> 
> enjoy!

_ “I am a Man of Fortune, and I must seek my Fortune.” –Henry Avery, 1694 _

If not for the adrenaline coursing through his veins, Peter isn’t sure he’d be able to make it up the side of the prison. The bricks are crumbling away under his hands, barely remaining steady as he climbs. Somewhere below him, Wade and Harry are waiting for news on what’s in Burnes’ old cell.

The Panamanian heat is thick, making the fifteen-year-old sweat through his shirt. Peter curses Wade under his breath for suggesting  _ he _ be the one who climbs up the old prison tower.

“You’re two years older than me, Wade,” Peter grumbles under his breath. “Me being the youngest  _ isn’t _ a good reason.”

He reaches an open window and tumbles inside, using the bottom of his shirt to wipe sweat off of his forehead. When he peeks back out to see where the other two are, he can’t find them anywhere.

“I swear to God if they left…” Peter says with a huff.

Within the dingy prison cell, there’s writing engraved on the walls, extending up high enough that Peter wonders how Burnes even got them up there. He lets his hands run over the wall, looking for any loose stones. None of the scribbles indicate any specific spot to look, leaving him to search every square inch.

Suddenly, there’s shouting coming from outside. One of the voices sounds suspiciously like Wade’s. “Dammit, Wade,” he grumbles and rolls his eyes before redoubling his efforts to look for the correct stone.

Peter jumps in fear when the shouting is followed by gunshots. The teen swears as he pulls out the first stone his fingers land on. Luckily for him, it seems to be the correct one. His heart is racing as he pulls out a broken cross, and Peter takes a moment to look it over before tucking it in the back of his pants and climbing back out the window.

Below him, Harry and Wade are doing their best to hold off the guards from the nearby prison while being  _ shot _ at. They’re outnumbered and need to leave soon before they get killed. Peter hurries back down the tower, going faster than he probably should. He loses his footing in the last ten feet and falls the rest of the way

Unfortunately for Peter, he lands on his feet at just the wrong angle. “Shit!” he bites out as his ankle throbs in pain. He grits his teeth and crawls behind some cover.

“We need to get down to the boat!” Harry yells over to him, and Peter huffs in response. Harry pulls a gun out of  _ nowhere _ , and begins to return the guards' fire. It’s too bad that he doesn’t have infinite ammo to take out every single guard.

“Can you get up?” Wade suddenly interjects. Peter isn’t sure when the teen made his way closer to him.

He attempts to stand, but his ankle buckles under him. “Kind of,” he grumbles.

Wade curses as his eyes dart around the area. Harry’s gesturing wildly at him to get a move on as the other teen gets a head-start down the hill. “Hang on, baby boy,” is all Wade says before he sweeps Peter off his broken ankle into a bridal carry.

Peter squeaks as his fingers curl into Wade’s shirt at the sudden movement. “What the hell, Wade?” Peter gasps out. He’ll never admit the tiny crush he’s got on the blond, and being pressed so close to him isn’t helping that in the  _ slightest. _

“It’s the quickest way,” Wade’s states as his arms tighten a little around Peter, holding him closer as the ground in front of them starts getting steeper. Wade’s feet slip a few times as they head down, trying to avoid either of them getting punched with a few bullet holes.

Harry disappears off into the horizon and Peter can only assume they’re getting close to the water now.

Wade suddenly stumbles, dropping Peter as they both go rolling down the rest of the way. When they drop into the water, Harry’s already on the boat and waiting. They’re still being shot at, and Peter’s movements are jerky as he tries to avoid the bullets. Harry helps him onto the boat before helping Wade.

“Go!” Peter shouts at Harry as soon as they’re all secure. Harry doesn’t waste any more time before getting to the wheel.

Wade grunts in pain and Peter glances at him, taking notice of the growing blood-stain on the teen’s lower left abdomen. Wade presses his hand against it, keeping pressure on the wound even as his fingers grow slick with blood. Peter lets out a heavy breath and fumbles to find their first aid kit.

“I’m not dying, Petey,” Wade says, but the chuckle in his voice soon morphs into a pained groan as Peter shoves his hand out of the way, lifts the shirt, and starts cleaning the wound. It’s going to require stitching.

“You will if you lose enough blood,” Peter replies, giving Wade a firm look.

“How’s your ankle?”

“Fucking hurts, but I’ll live.” Peter shoots a smirk at him as he finishes up. “You’re lucky May taught me the basics.”

“May she rest in peace,” Wade murmurs, earning a soft smile from Peter. “Let me wrap your ankle.”

“When you two are done playing nurse, don’t we have something to look at? You know, the entire reason we’re in this mess?” Harry snaps from the wheel.

Peter rolls his eyes as Wade begins to tenderly wrap his ankle. He winces at the pressure of the wrap and realises it might be broken. When Wade is done, Peter leans against the side of the boat and wiggles to pull out the cross.

“I found this in the wall of Burnes’ cell,” Peter says, turning over the object as he stares into the worn wood. 

“A crucifix? Why’d he go to such lengths to hide that?” Wade asks as he peers over Peter’s shoulder.

“It’s not a crucifix.” Peter points to the figure’s head. “Notice there’s no crown of thorns.”

“It’s not Jesus.”

Peter turns it over and runs a finger over the words painted on the old wood. “ _ ‘Digna factis recipimus’ _ . It means ‘we receive the due rewards of our deeds’. It’s Saint Dismas.”

“Who the hell is that?” Harry asks from the front of the boat.

“Jesus was placed on the cross in between two thieves,” Peter explains, for once glad for all the times May dragged him to various church activities. “One of them mocked Jesus, and the other accepted his punishment with grace. A penitent thief.”

“There’s a Saint Dismas Cathedral in Scotland,” Harry adds, slowing down to a stop when they’re comfortably out of sight of the prison.

“That’s where Avery’s last sighting was,” Wade says. “Can’t be a coincidence.”

“What’s the cross for, though?” Harry asks, grabbing it from Peter’s hands. “It’s broken and hollow.”

“I don’t know.” Peter shrugs. “Maybe it had some sort of message inside? Leading us to Scotland… anyway, we figured that out without it, so it doesn’t really matter.”

Harry gives Peter’s shoulder a tight squeeze, excitement in his voice, “Let’s get to Scotland, boys.”


	2. once a thief

_ Fifteen years later… _

“Parker! I need those photos by the end of the day!”

Peter turns just enough to see his boss, J. Jonah Jameson, standing in the doorway of the main office. Jonah’s face is painted in his usual shade of crimson, making Peter wonder how he hasn’t had another heart attack yet.

“I put it on your desk half an hour ago, Mr. Jameson. You’ve already approved them,” Peter calls back, the smirk on his lips concealed behind his pile of paperwork.

Jameson huffs and goes to say something snarky in reply when he catches sight of a folder with said photographs sitting on the edge of his desk. Instead of apologizing, Jameson turns back and barks, “Don’t forget your article is due tomorrow– 8AM sharp.”

“Of course, sir.”

Betty grins at him from a few desks down. Peter snorts and rolls his eyes, going back to his work. He can see his reflection on his laptop screen, a constellation of freckles thick across the bridge of his nose with more on his forehead and cheeks. They seem to have gotten worse as he got older, much to his annoyance.

Peter runs a tired hand over his face, sighing softly. At least his job is consistent. Sometimes he wonders if Jameson enjoys yelling just because he likes to hear the sound of his own voice.

“Are you going to take a lunch break today?” Betty asks, coming over to stand in front of his desk. There’s a shy smile on her face as she tucks a loose lock of blonde hair behind her ear. Her eyes keep flickering between his brown eye and his blue.

“I can’t. I have a last-minute interview that’ll cut into it,” Peter answers, looking at his watch. “Which… I should get going if I want to meet her on time.”

“Oh.” Betty’s smile falls briefly before she can straighten her face. “Of course. Good luck.”

Peter gives her a polite smile before turning to pack his things into a bag to meet up with the client.

Every day seems to be the same since he started working at the Daily Bugle. Work on articles, edit photographs for others (when he has the time), and meet up with people for interviews. Between all that, he also has to deal with Jameson’s yelling and Betty’s shy attempts at asking him out. She’s cute, definitely, but Peter isn’t sure he has the mental capability to give her the attention she deserves. His best friend and co-worker, MJ, suggested setting Betty up with Ned a while ago. Honestly, it’s not a bad thought…

Being in New York City has enough excitement to keep a pleasant buzz in Peter’s veins. It isn’t nearly the same as his teens and twenties when he spent every moment he could chasing after El Dorado. Meeting MJ while treasure hunting in his early twenties was interesting. It was reason enough for him to hate zombies forever.

Truth be told, he still gets shivers to this very day at the thought of hoards of spiders. Their various legs crawling through the ruins as he searched for _ Iram of the Pillars _ . And let's not talk about the ones that got inside his shirt… Hell, despite living in New York, Peter still can't get over the deep-set chill he got while looking for Shambala.

Speaking of which, Peter’s pretty sure Felicia still has his jacket from that trip…

Within the mundane drawl of city life, there are still days when Peter really misses the thrill of it all. The times when they would pack up and set off to foregin lands, looking for lost cities and hoping to make a pretty penny on the way. Sure, it wasn’t ideal to bounce from cheap hotel room to cheap hotel room (or ending up in jail, in a few instances), but he was happy. He  _ loved  _ it. Unfortunately, though, once Peter was in his thirties, he realised he needed to do something with a steady income and get an actual place to live. Tony did the same thing when he was the same age.

Peter doesn’t even realise he’s not fully paying attention to the interview until his phone starts ringing in his bag. He blinks in surprise, a little glad the client didn’t notice anything amiss about his attention.

“I’m so sorry, I forgot to turn it down,” Peter quickly apologizes, digging around in his bag for the phone. He sees MJ’s name and huffs, smiling a little before tucking it away in his jacket pocket. “Sorry, where were we?”

“Actually, I have to get going anyway. My babysitter is busy today and I need to be at my apartment before my kid gets home,” the client says as she glances down at her watch.

“Oh, that’s alright. We got through all the important questions.” Peter grins at her as he stands. They shake hands firmly before the client heads out of the small café where they met.

He figures he should probably call MJ back.

As he dials her number, Peter packs his stuff into his bag. It’s likely that he's in for another late night finishing up his article and maybe doing some light editing for another co-worker. It’s not like he has any plans as it is... Plus, the money is nice.

“ _ Hey, loser. Are you doing anything for dinner later? _ ” MJ asks as soon as she answers. “ _ Knowing you, you probably skipped lunch. _ ”

“I had an interview,” Peter defends, laughing despite himself. “And you already know I never have dinner plans.”

“ _ Yeah, you live a sad life. _ ” MJ laughs. “ _ One of these days, I’m hoping you’ll give me an actual answer. _ ”

“You and me both. Want to meet at our usual? I have to work late, but Jameson leaves by six.”

“ _ See you at six-thirty, then. _ ”

Peter rolls his eyes and says his goodbyes.

**~*~**

“Damn, you look like shit.”

“Hey, MJ. Nice to see you too,” Peter says with a roll of his eyes. He presses a quick kiss to her cheek before sliding into the booth across from her.

She’s already munching on a basket of fries and pushes it closer to the middle of the table for them to share. “Are you going back to work after this?”

“I need to get this article done by tonight. Jameson’s been on my ass about this one, you know that.” Peter shoves a couple fries into his mouth with a huff. “I’m telling you, he wants me to quit ‘cause he has no reason to fire me.”

“It’s because you’re the most recent hire, Peter,” MJ says, raising an eyebrow. “I went through the same shit before Garret was hired.”

Peter sighs as he sits back into the slightly sticky upholstered restaurant booth. MJ is the entire reason he even has a job at the Bugle, anyway. Most places turned him down without a second thought the moment they saw he had a criminal record. Without MJ’s help, he’s not sure where he would be right now. Probably under a bridge, if he’s being honest.

“Why’d you call me anyway? Usually, if you want to meet for dinner, you send me a text.” Peter picks up a menu and scans over the options, already going to choose the same thing he always does whenever they go to Mick’s.

MJ smirks and leans forward suddenly, her elbows on the table. “So I got this call about a sunken ship in Malaysia…”

“MJ.” Peter lets out a sigh, already shaking his head. “Do you at least have permits?”

“Well, no, but that’s never stopped you before.” MJ raises an eyebrow again. Peter kind of wants to shave it off if she’s going to keep using them to judge him. “C’mon, Pete, I know you miss it.”

“I have a steady job, MJ. One you helped me get, remember? And, may I remind you, I couldn’t get anything before it  _ because  _ of all the illegal jobs,” Peter says, popping another couple of fries into his mouth. “I can’t lose this one.”

“You got the job because you’re qualified for it.” MJ crosses her arms over her chest. “I just helped it get onto Jameson’s desk. Everything else was you.”

Peter bites his bottom lip for a moment, before releasing it with a sigh. A part of him aches for that life again; for all the heart-racing adrenaline that came from scaling towers and tombs, and running from gunfire.

“I’ve talked to Tony already. He’s onboard–”

“ _ MJ _ ,” Peter interrupts.

“Alright, I’ll drop it,” she concedes. “So, Jameson’s got me on this piece about Bangkok…”

Peter hates to admit it, but he zones out as he listens to the familiar comfort of MJ’s voice. Even ordering feels rhythmic as the server knows what he’ll say even before the words leave his mouth.

Instead, his mind wanders off to what MJ said. He remembers meeting Tony at fourteen, not long after his aunt and uncle died and he had nowhere else to go. Tony was his step-uncle or something, neither of them thought too much about it. Tony came from a rich family, but was disowned after landing in jail a few too many times. He took Peter on a lot of different trips with him.

Well. Him and…

Peter rubs his eyes with a sigh. It’s been fifteen years and he still can’t think of his name without feeling a bit emotional over it. When they were still traveling the world, Tony used to try distracting him with tales of Sir Francis Drake, trying to get his mind off what happened.

A sharp kick to his shin brings him out of his musings. “Ow,” he complains, frowning despite the wicked smirk on MJ’s face.

“You’re totally thinking about it,” she states, the smirk not leaving her face for even a second.

“No, I’m…” Peter sighs. “Yeah, alright. I was just thinking about Tony, ya know? How he took me in, and we went everywhere looking for the impossible.”

“What’s stopping you? You and I both know working for the Bugle isn’t a great job. It’s a gossip magazine, despite what you say. You could work elsewhere now that you have your foot in the door.” MJ’s soft brown eyes search his face. “Don’t you want to do it again?”

“Well, yeah, but…” He bites his bottom lip and shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter anyway.”

MJ sighs softly and allows Peter to change the topic as their food is brought to the table.

**~*~**

The continuous sound of clicking keys is the only thing keeping Peter awake. Well, that and the empty coffee cup sitting to his right. He nearly brings it up to his mouth to take a drink when he remembers he ran out hours ago.

“Fuck, I need sleep,” Peter mutters, running a hand over his face. He needs to leave the office for the night in twenty minutes, and he’s nearly finished.

A knock sounds from the door leading into the small area of desks. There are likely too many shoved together in this space to be safe, but Jameson gets away with it somehow. Peter thinks he just yells until the building inspector goes away. He really wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case...

“I’ll be out of here soon, Mr. Frye,” Peter calls towards the door, assuming it’s just the night janitor. He likes to check in on Peter whenever he’s stuck working late.

There’s another knock and Peter repeats himself louder, in case the elderly man hadn’t heard him. When there’s yet another set of knocks, he huffs and stands up from his desk, muttering “asshole” as he goes.

When he opens the door, there is a man standing by the window, staring out. Peter can’t see his face, and he feels a little annoyed that the guy isn’t looking at him despite the insistent knocking.

“I don’t need any more interviews for this article,” Peter says, taking a couple steps closer. “So if that’s what you’re looking for–” He cuts off and his breath catches, taking a small step back when the man turns around. “Wade, oh my God,” Peter whispers, unfreezing and falling into Wade’s arms. “I thought you were dead, holy shit.”

Wade tucks his face into the crook of Peter’s neck as they hug, almost clinging to one another. Peter’s heart is running a marathon in his chest as he holds Wade tightly. As much as he doesn’t want to admit it, there are tears gathering in his eyes. A hand finds the back of Wade’s head to tangle in his blond hair like he used to, but instead he finds scarred skin. Wade tenses under him.

“Wade?” Peter asks softly, pulling back to look at him only to find that Wade won’t meet his eyes. “Hey, are you okay?”

Wade’s looking down at his feet, giving Peter the time to take in all of the scarring that he’s never seen before. Peter’s never seen Wade this tense and ashamed around him, and it causes a pit of anxiety to settle in his chest.

“Wade?” Peter repeats, gently cupping Wade’s face and angling his head up so their eyes can meet. Peter’s definitely crying now. He swallows thickly before continuing. “What happened?”

Wade leans into Peter’s touch briefly before he gently pulls his hand away. “It’s so good to see you, baby boy.”

Peter lets out a wet laugh when he hears the familiar nickname. “I haven’t been called that in fifteen years.”

Wade smiles sadly and drops Peter’s hand completely. “C’mon. Let’s go talk.”

Peter nods quickly, excusing himself for a moment so he can grab his things from his desk. He already knows he won’t finish his article now, but he can’t find it in himself to be bothered by it.

The park is quiet and still when they get there. There are a few people still milling about– there always will be in this city. Peter can only focus on the man next to him, however, and the way Wade still won’t meet his eyes as they find a bench to sit on.

“You left without saying anything,” Peter starts, facing forward despite wanting to turn his whole body to look at Wade. “You… you got sick, and then one day you just… stopped coming back.” He looks at Wade, hurt. “We kept searching, but… Wade I couldn’t. I had to leave Scotland. Everywhere I looked… I saw you. It pissed Harry off to no end, but I couldn’t do it without you.”

Wade is quiet for a while, still hunched in on himself. The only way Peter can tell that he’s still alive and there is the subtle movement of his body as he breathes. His hands are shaking in his lap, and it takes everything in Peter not to reach over and lace their fingers together.

“I got cancer,” he eventually admits quietly. “It was… it was late-stage. Pretty much a damned death sentence.” Wade takes a shaky breath. “I was scared shitless, of course. Being seventeen and being told it’d be a fucking miracle if I saw my eighteenth.”

“Oh my God, Wade.” Peter gives in and grabs Wade’s left hand, holding it between both of his. He ignores how much larger Wade is than him now. “You could’ve told me. I would’ve… Tony and I would’ve helped.”

“Tony hated me,” Wade laughs hollowly, trying to lighten the mood a little. It falls flat. “I didn’t want you to worry. I got treatment, obviously. Had a, uh, few side effects. This lovely meat shredder look is all over.”

Peter’s face falls when he hears Wade’s self-deprecation. It’s nothing new to hear. Wade was always self-conscious, all of it hidden behind overconfidence and jokes. Though it seems to be worse now that Wade can’t hide behind his looks.

“Anyway, um, you said you and Harry were still in Scotland for a bit after. What happened?” Wade looks over at him now, and Peter finds himself falling back into those familiar vibrant blue eyes.

“Harry bought the land around the Cathedral,” Peter says, running his thumb slowly over Wade’s palm. “You know that, of course. We kept combing through every last inch of it, but we couldn’t find anything. Harry was frustrated with me by the time I left. With no other leads after months, added with your disappearance, I gave up looking for Avery’s treasure altogether.”

“Went after El Dorado instead?” Wade teases.

Peter smiles at Wade. “That was a few years later, yeah.” He runs his fingers lightly along the scars on Wade’s hand, feeling a pang of hurt at missing all those years with Wade. Before he can ask what Wade’s been up to, the man speaking up.

“I have a lead,” he says. It’s almost too quiet for Peter to pick up. He sits up and uses his free hand to pull a piece of paper from a pocket on the inside of his jacket. Without unfolding it, he hands it to Peter.

Peter lets go of Wade’s hand to grab the piece of paper. He unfolds it and raises an eyebrow. “It’s a cross. We found this in Burnes’ cell.”

Wade points to the bottom of the cross. “It’s intact.”

“Holy shit, you’re right.” Peter chuckles softly. “Maybe there really was something in the cross that we were missing. Wait… this cross is being sold at the Rossi Estate. How the hell do you plan on even getting an invite to an exclusive, heavily armed black market auction? Do you even have the money to bet on it? ‘Cause I sure as hell don’t.” Peter searches Wade’s face for a moment before he shakes his head, smiling fondly. “You’re going to steal it, aren’t you?”

“It’ll be an easy in-and-out,” Wade says with the nonchalance of someone who clearly has no respect for his own life. It makes something clench in Peter’s chest.

“Why even bother, Wade? Harry’s been searching for Avery’s treasure for longer than we have.” Peter lets out a huff of a laugh. “He’s had more resources for this than we ever thought about having. Just let him have it.”

“Pete, Harry’s already rich. Why does he need an extra four hundred million?” Wade asks, looking upset. “Harry’s a fucking  _ Osborn _ . He’s not like us.”

“Why do we need that much money?” Peter asks in return. “I thought when you and I set out to look for Avery’s treasure, it wasn’t to get insanely rich. You and I made a pact, remember? We only take a small amount. Enough to get rich, but not gorge ourselves on it.”

“I just don’t want him to have it,” Wade says softly. “I can’t in good conscience let this go.”

Peter sighs softly, closing his eyes for a minute. “Alright. At least let me help you.”

“What? Last I heard, you didn’t do any of this.” Wade waves his hand in a vague gesture as he speaks. “Besides, Harry’s hired Shoreline.”

“Shoreline? You mean the mercenary organization that takes various security and military contracts around the world? The same one that  _ Gwen Stacy  _ leads? That’s even more reason for me to help you,” Peter insists. “Look, we can ask Tony to fly us to Scotland once we get the cross. Even better, he can get us into the Rossi Estate.”

Wade turns to look fully at Peter. “I thought you were done?”

“I can’t let you just walk away,” Peter says softly. “Not after fifteen years of thinking you were dead.”

They both go quiet and Wade seems to find something in Peter’s expression because he sighs softly. “Alright, alright. Mainly because I fucking hate airports.”

Peter fondly rolls his eyes and squeezes Wade’s shoulder. “I’ll make the call.”

**~*~**

It feels unnatural being so dressed up. Peter pulls a little at his tie as he walks to the spot where he’s supposed to meet Wade. They may or may not have had to swipe their suits in order to fit in with the rest of the black-tie crowd. They were lucky that Tony still had contacts from before his father kicked him out of the family that allowed them to get them into the event.

A wolf whistle suddenly cuts through the sounds of the crowd and breaks Peter out of his thoughts. Peter blinks and sees Wade grinning sharply at him. He can’t help but blush as his eyes scan over Wade himself. Subconsciously, Peter bites his bottom lip, wishing he could see the muscles that fill out Wade’s suit nicely. If he’s being honest, Peter’s mouth waters a little at the sight.

Tony clears his throat from next to him, and when Peter turns to look at him, he’s shooting him a very unimpressed look.

“You look good,” Peter tells Tony, grinning when Tony just rolls his eyes.

Tony mutters something under his breath as he hands wireless earbuds to the other two for them to communicate though once they head inside.

“You look nice,” Wade says softly to Peter when Tony isn’t paying attention. He’s surprised that Wade is willing to be seen with his scars on display when he spent the whole plane ride there complaining about them.

Tony goes ahead of them to talk to the guards at the front of the Estate, discussing something quietly with them. It doesn’t take him very long before he gestures for Peter and Wade to follow him inside.

The second they enter, Peter immediately feels out of place. There are a bunch of rich criminals surrounding them, listening to the soft jazz playing through the stereos. Peter sticks close to Tony and Wade, hoping no one will ask him what he does. He doubts any of them would take nicely to hearing that someone who works at a gossip magazine is there.

“Reminds me of the last time I looked pretty for you,” Peter tells Tony. “Back in London when we had Johnny go undercover with Talbot.”

“And Johnny beat the shit out of me to ‘make it look real’? Of course I remember.” Tony’s sour look makes Peter snicker. “There’s a door to the backroom at the back of the ballroom. We can use that to head to the room where they’re keeping all the artifacts that aren’t on bid yet.”

“Uh, guys. We might have a problem with that plan,” Wade says, stopping at a table. He gestures towards the stage where the Saint Dismas cross is on display. “The rotation got changed.”

“Shit.” Peter runs a hand over his face, frustrated. “What do we do now?”

Wade taps on the table a little and chuckles to himself. “Boys, we’ve all spent time in prison, yeah? When you want to get something done, you do it during--”

“Lights out,” Peter and Tony finish.

“There’s a power room not far away,” Tony says, looking through the crowd. “A back-up generator will start up not long after, so we’ll have to be quick.”

Wade grabs a drink off a passing waiter with a smirk. “We can get close enough dressed as a waiter. No one will suspect anything.”

“Will it work, though?” Peter asks, feeling doubtful despite himself. He’s helped pull off jobs similar to this before, but he’s been out of the practice for a couple years.

“Of course it will.” Wade sounds confident, still smirking as he takes a long sip of his drink. “I’ve pick-pocketed quite a few people over the years, I should be okay.”

“I’ll go to the power room, then,” Peter says. He turns to Tony. “You can be on the lookout. If anybody suspects anything, tell us right away. It should be an easy enough job if we do this right.”

“Don’t fall,” Wade says, squeezing his shoulder.

Peter snorts. “Don’t get caught,” he retorts, gently bumping Wade’s shoulder before swiping a keycard out of the back pocket of a passing waiter on his way to the back room.

Tony keeps watch as Wade nabs a waiter his size and drags him into the now open backroom. He knocks him unconscious and Peter just shakes his head, trying his best to hide his smile.

“Shame you have to change, you looked so nice,” Peter says, taking his suit jacket off and tossing it somewhere near the unconscious waiter.

“I’ll look pretty any day of the week, all you gotta do is ask.” Wade winks at him as he changes. He’s quick about it and slips back out soon after, leaving Peter alone.

Peter lets out a shaky breath before pushing forward, heading out to the back of the large castle through a set of vents from the back room. Luckily, he’s small enough to be able to wiggle through. It’s not without some challenges, though. When Peter passes by the guards in the break room, they’re talking about how they think they heard something in the vent. He’s already passed them by that point, so they won’t see him in the vent, thankfully. They say something about it being an animal, and that’s the last Peter hears before he’s too far away.

The back is lit by lamps outside, giving Peter enough light to see as he climbs his way through. The doors are locked, forcing him to climb the walls to get past them. There are a few guards, but nothing Peter can’t handle.

He’s nearly to the power room when voices filter in through the comm.

_ “Hands in the air,”  _ a feminine voice says, sounding smug.  _ “Hello, Tony.” _

_ “Hello, Gwen. It’s a pleasure to see you again.”  _ Tony’s voice is calm and collected as he speaks. He doesn’t sound very worried, either, making Peter wonder when Tony met her.  _ “Guess I should be glad that isn’t a real gun. I didn’t even recognize you out of your fatigues.” _

_ “Yeah, well. There’s always that job that requires getting dolled up.”  _ Gwen chuckles. There’s an edge to it Peter can recognize, but can’t quite place.  _ “You look sharp in a suit.” _

_ “Thank you, doll. Must say, you look nice yourself.” _

_ “I feel so out of place here. I can’t tell you how relieved I feel finding another English speaker.”  _ Gwen clears her throat and there’s a soft rustle of clothing.  _ “I was on my way to the bar when I saw you. Can I get you anything?” _

_ “Scotch on the rocks, please.”  _ Heels click away before Tony speaks again, quieter this time.  _ “Pete, did you hear that?” _

“Sounds like even an old man like you can get hit on,” Peter jokes, grinning as he climbs up another outer wall. “Take it while you can.”

_ “The lady hitting on me is Gwen Stacy.” _

“The Gwen Stacy that runs Shoreline?”

_ “The very same one. Had a run-in with them a few years back. Thankfully, she doesn’t seem to be holding a grudge.”  _ Tony huffs.  _ “You good out there, kid?” _

“Yeah, I’m almost there. You going to be okay talking to Gwen?” He’s never met Gwen, personally, but he’s heard a lot about her and Shoreline. Specifically the article where Shoreline backed up a civil war that didn’t pan out for them and Gwen inheriting the mess.

_ “I hear I have a bit of luck with the ladies.” _

Peter laughs. “Right, okay. You alright, Wade?”

_ “Pants are squeezing the boys, but I’m otherwise fine,”  _ Wade says softly. He continues in broken Italian to what Peter assumes to be a guest. Playing the part, Peter guesses.  _ “Shoreline isn’t someone we should be messing with. Be careful, Tony.” _

Tony mutters something under his breath that Peter doesn’t manage to catch. He snickers as he climbs up the rest of the wall. There’s only a little bit left when he loses his grip.

“Oh, shit,” Peter curses, scratching at the bricks as he slips. He manages to catch himself on a window sill, heart racing in his chest.

_ “I hear you used to have a partner. A, uh, Parker? Peter Parker?”  _ Gwen says suddenly, halfway through a conversation Peter missed while falling.

_ “Yeah, uh. Parker’s been out for a while. Flying solo these days,”  _ Tony answers. Peter’s so going to tease him for the fondness he most definitely hears in his voice.

_ “Out? Like… ‘dead’ out?” _

_ “Oh, no. Retired, actually. Last I heard, he settled in the Big Apple. Some fancy reporter now.” _

_ “A reporter?”  _ a familiar male voice says. Peter feels his skin grow cold hearing it.  _ “Didn’t take him for the spotlight type.”  _ A pause.  _ “How are you, Tony? It’s been a few years, hasn’t it?” _

_ “Fifteen to be more precise,”  _ Tony replies, voice clipped.  _ “I’m fine, Harry. I hear you took over your dad’s business? How’s that going for you?” _

_ “Oscorp is my business now,” _ Harry says firmly, sounding a bit angry, even. Peter snickers at that.  _ “And it’s going well, actually. Gives me enough time to, uh, go shopping.” _

_ “You could probably buy everything here with the kinda cash you make at Oscorp.”  _ Tony chuckles. It sounds fake to Peter’s ears, and he doesn’t doubt both Gwen and Harry pick up on it as well.

_ “I’m only looking for the good stuff tonight, Stark. The big scores, you know?”  _ Harry sighs, pausing assumedly to take a sip from his own drink. Peter can’t tell from where he is, but Harry’s always been big on dramatic pauses.  _ “Any advice on what I should look for?” _

Tony hums in thought.  _ “Between you and me… I noticed they changed the lot order. I think someone’s trying to rig it.” _

_ “This crowd didn’t get rich by playing fair.”  _ Harry chuckles.

_ “It’s why you need someone to watch your back at these sorts of things,”  _ Gwen speaks up.  _ “Can’t rely on anyone here.” _

Tony pauses, feigning surprise.  _ “You’re working for him?” _

_ “With, actually. We’ve partnered up on this job,”  _ Gwen answers. She has been the calmest between her and her partner. It makes Peter wonder how long she’s been in the game, exactly.

_ “In a few minutes, we’ll begin bidding on the first item. An inlaid wooden cross from the Trott Estate,”  _ an auctioneer announces over the microphone. Peter’s eyes widen as he starts climbing faster.

_ “You kids have fun tonight,”  _ Tony says, trying to end the conversation and walk away.

_ “How’d you find out about this?”  _ Harry asks, voice sounding a bit too loud over the comm. He can’t help but wince.

_ “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Harry. Gwen, I really think–” _

_ “Cut the bullshit, old man,”  _ Harry snaps. The sound of glass breaking is loud in Peter’s ear as he hops down into the power room.  _ “I don’t know how the hell you managed to con your way in here. If you even think about bidding on Avery’s cross, you’ll be leaving in a goddamn body bag.” _

_ “Harry!” _

Gwen’s voice is sharp, but it must cut through to Harry because he goes quiet. In fact, Peter can’t really hear anything through the comm. Damn Harry and his flair for the dramatics. The background chatter starts up again and Peter lets out a shaky breath.

_ “Kid? Did you catch all that?” _

“Unfortunately, yes,” Peter grumbles. “Fucking Harry. I should’ve expected him to still be on the trail for Avery’s gold.”

_ “Are you in the power room yet? Bidding’s starting and Harry is already the highest.” _

“Yeah, I just made it in.” Peter pushes open the door and huffs when he sees a locked gate. “You’re going to have to keep the bid alive while I pry open this door. Wade, are you near it?”

_ “Yeah, I am. Hurry up, though. Harry’s turning that particular shade of red when he’s upset.” _

Peter snorts and looks for a crowbar in the different containers stacked around the doors, triumphant when he finds one. He can hear the bidding going on through his ear piece as he forces the door open.

“Alright, I’m about to turn off the power. Everybody ready?”

Tony chuckles in his ear.  _ “Let’s ruin this asshole’s evening.” _

Grinning, Peter flips the switch. He can briefly hear panic coming through the comms before things go quiet again. He can only assume it’s because Wade and Tony have left the room.

“Wade, do you have the cross?” Peter asks as soon as he thinks the other two are safe.

_ “Got Saint Dismas right here.”  _ Wade sounds utterly pleased with himself.  _ “Wanna say hi?” _

“Where’s the car, Tony?” Peter asks instead, grinning despite himself.

_ “The ballroom is in chaos. I could hear Harry yelling when I slipped out the back door,”  _ Tony explains.  _ “I have a car parked out front. Follow the spotlights, I’ll meet you there.” _

“See you there,” Peter says as he slips back down the wall.

He’s forced to take a different route back. There are guards posted everywhere, leaving him with very little wiggle room.

“Shit,” Peter mutters to himself, hiding behind a stone bench as two guards walk right past him. He waits a moment before sneaking behind them and down a set of stairs. “Goddamnit. There’s so many of them.”

A guard nearly catches him as he heads down a set of stairs, but Peter knocks him unconscious with a quick hit to the head before he can be spotted. He doesn’t like killing innocents, especially when he can help it. He saves that for life-or-death situations.

Suddenly, a light shines right on him and shouts are being thrown his way. Peter runs as fast as he can away as they begin shooting at him. One hits its mark, leaving a bloody graze on his bicep. Word spreads through the rest of the guards about what to look for, so Peter ducks into a nearby library, letting out a breath when he’s all alone.

A blonde woman appears in his vision when Peter opens the door. He startles, plastering on what he hopes to be a charming smile. “ _ Scusi _ .”

Gwen’s eyes flicker down to his bleeding arm and she smirks. “You’re not supposed to be up here.”

“Well neither are you, technically,” Peter replies, smirking a little. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”

Gwen pushes him back and locks the door. “You have something I want, and you’re going to give it to me.”

“Oh, I’m flattered, really. You should really know I prefer men, thou–” Peter huffs as his feet are swept out from under him.

“I’m not in the mood for your games, Parker,” Gwen snaps. “Now give me the artifact.”

“I’m a gentleman, Miss. Stacy. I don’t hit–” Peter gets to his feet, but is once again interrupted, this time by a punch to the gut. He groans. “I didn’t want to have to do this...”

Gwen makes a face before swinging her leg up high and catching him in the side of the face. Peter goes down again and tries using the opportunity to knock Gwen off her feet this time.

She’s clearly anticipating the move, and hops out of the way. Gwen grabs his arm as Peter gets up, and pins him to a nearby bookshelf.

“Hand me the artifact,” Gwen snarls.

“Did you know everything here is stolen?” Peter asks, feigning shock. “That technically means none of us own any of this.”

Peter gets slammed into the bookshelf again before he’s flung backwards onto a table. He wheezes out in pain before rolling up, getting into a fighting stance.

“You ready to keep being a smartass?”

“Well, it’s gotten me this far in life,” Peter snarks before throwing a punch at her.

Gwen easily dodges, grabbing his arm and twisting it behind his back.

“Okay, wait!” Peter cries out, going limp so his arm isn’t in agony. “It’s in my back pocket.”

When Gwen leans forward to check, Peter twists out of her hold and manages to get her in the gut with an elbow. She huffs and kicks him through the window, giving him just the opportunity he needs to escape. He grabs one of the curtains on the way out, and uses it to swing down to the ballroom to safety.

Peter rolls as he lands, getting behind an overturned table for cover. The ballroom is a mess of glass and overturned furniture. There aren’t any guests still lingering about, but there are still guards he has to get through to get to the front door.

“Peter?!”

He turns and grins at Wade, who’s hiding behind a nearby table. He looks bloodied, but not terribly hurt. Wade shakes his head with a grin and tosses a gun towards Peter. “Tony waiting for us?”

“Yeah, but we have to get through these guys first.” Wade shoots a couple guys near them with perfect aim, making Peter eye him up appreciatively. “You really think I’d be out of practice?”

Peter huffs out a laugh. “We didn’t shoot much back then.”

“Even then, it was still mostly me. You were still green.”

Peter blushes and rolls his eyes, turning to shoot a couple more. “On three, we run! Through the door is a straight shot to the parking lot. Ready?”

“Born ready, baby boy.”

They wait a few moments before booking it across the destroyed ballroom, empty except for the guards pouring in after them. They continue getting shot at as they rush through, dodging and trying not to get hit anywhere vital. Tony is waiting for them at the end of the drive. The doors aren’t even closed before he’s peeling out of there.

“Holy shit, we did it!” Peter laughs in disbelief. “Let me see it.”

Wade pulls the cross out of seemingly nowhere and hands it to Peter. He looks it over and lets out a whistle.

“It’s still intact,” Wade says, looking over Peter’s shoulder.

“Let’s wait until we get to the hotel, boys,” Tony speaks up from the front seat. “We’ll be able to see it better there.”

Wade seems to notice Peter’s wound then, and zeros in on it. “Shit, you okay?”

Peter glances down at it. “Huh? Yeah. I've had worse, this isn’t anything.”

Wade shoots him a look that reads  _ ‘you’re telling me later’ _ but thankfully doesn’t further prod him about it. The car goes silent and Peter takes a chance to close his eyes and relax. He hasn’t felt this kind of adrenaline in a long time.

Peter is woken up not long later, not remembering when he fell asleep. When he opens his eyes, he instantly blushes at seeing the drool mark he made on Wade’s shoulder. Wade just laughs at him before they make their way up to their hotel room.

The three of them end up in Peter’s room, and Wade sets the cross down on the table. He mutters a prayer before breaking it open.

“It’s empty,” Wade says, face falling.

“What?!” Peter grabs for the cross, and quickly scowls as Wade laughs at him and pulls away. “You’re such an ass.”

Wade pulls out the note from inside and smooths it open. It’s a picture of a cross with dates on the bottom and a Latin quote at the top.

“ _ Hodie mecum eris in Paradiso _ ,” Peter reads, and translates, “Today you will join me in Paradise.”

“That’s what Jesus said to Saint Dismas, isn’t it?” Wade asks. He scratches the back of his neck. “The skull and crossbones is Avery’s sigil, but… this doesn’t make sense. Wouldn’t he send other pirates some sort of map?”

“The numbers are dates,” Tony says. He pulls the piece of paper closer and points at them. “1659 is the year Avery was born, and 1699 was the year he supposedly died.”

“We’re looking for a grave,” Peter concludes. He pulls out his phone and looks something up before grinning. “Avery’s buried in Scotland. At Saint Dismas cathedral.”

“Where Harry’s been looking.” Wade sits back and runs a hand over his face. “So… what? He’s been looking in the wrong place?”

“Well, yeah. He’s been looking around the cathedral. What we need is at the cemetery, which is a good distance away. We’ll be able to get there without getting spotted.”

“Wait, wait,” Tony interrupts. “This isn’t like back when you three all worked together. Harry’s got Shoreline behind him now. Plus, all these years searching have definitely made him lose a few screws.”

“We’ll be fine,” Peter insists. “We should be far enough away that Harry won’t catch us. We’ll be fine.”

Tony sighs softly, suddenly sounding old. “Alright, alright. Let’s go to Scotland.”


	3. hidden in plain sight

“Pretty view this time of year,” Peter comments, eyes scanning over the snowy landscape. There’s a thin layer of snow on the ground and a chill in the air. Peter can see his breath and the crisp air feels nice in his lungs.

“Bet you’ve seen a lot of pretty landscapes over the years,” Wade says, the odd tone to his voice having Peter look over at him.

“You’re jealous.” It’s a statement, and Wade doesn’t have much room to argue with Peter’s words.

“Pete, c’mon, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover,” Wade says, walking forward and ignoring Peter’s scoff.

“Wade.” Peter closes the distance Wade is creating between them and grabs his sleeve. “Hey, it’s me. We don’t hide things from each other. Especially on a job.”

Wade looks down at his feet, a strange expression on his face. “I just… I really wish I was there. With you, I mean.”

“For what?” Peter asks softly. He has a suspicion he already knows the answer.

“Shit, Pete.” Wade runs a hand over his head as he lets out a laugh. It’s too sharp to be any sort of amused. “When you discovered all those things. El Dorado, Shambhala, Iram of the Pillars…”

“I tried looking for you, Wade,” Peter insists, turning to him. “Every lead I had went cold, every trail I had ended up dry. I…”

“No, I know.” Wade smiles sadly. “Part of that was me. I didn’t want you to see me like this.”

Peter bites his bottom lip. “I wanted you there,” he says softly. “With me. You would like MJ. She’s… not an asshole like you, but can still hold her own quite well. Saved my ass more than a few times.”

Wade swallows thickly and nods. He turns in the direction of the graveyard. “C’mon. Tony’s not going to wait for us forever.”

They continue trudging through the snow towards the cemetery. Peter hums softly, smiling as he watches the light snowfall around them.

“Reminds me of when you and I were here last,” Peter says, looking around. “Harry was being uptight again and you and I had to walk away.”

“And then you pushed me into a snowbank? Yeah, I remember.” Wade laughs.

“Me? It was  _ you  _ who pushed  _ me _ ,” Peter says with a laugh of his own. He bends down and grabs a handful of snow. Once he packs it into a ball, he lobs it at Wade and grins as he shrieks at the sudden burst of cold. “C’mon, Wilson. Our last one got cut short.”

“Oh, you’re on, baby boy.”

Wade throws a snowball back at Peter and he barely manages to dodge it. Peter throws another and manages to catch him in the chest.

_ “Boys, as amusing it is to watch you two children throw snow at each other, are you forgetting you’re here for a reason?”  _ Tony asks through the radio.

Peter startles, forgetting all about the radio. He peeks over the side of the cliff they’d been walking along and sees Tony sitting in his plane on the water.

“You’re still welcome to come along, Tony. We’ll wait for you,” Peter says back, grinning as Wade snickers behind him.

_ “I’m not as young as I used to be, kiddo. I’d rather stay here and wait in case we need a quick getaway.” _

“Yeah, we know, old man,” Peter replies, laughing a little. “Wouldn’t want you to break a hip.”

_ “You’re not getting any younger either, Parker.” _

Wade is still snickering as he leads Peter away from the cliff. Peter feels better about how things are between them. The awkward tension felt foreign between them. It’s obvious Wade doesn’t hold any grudges towards Peter, but guilt is a familiar face.

As they get closer to the graveyard, a gunshot rings out. It nearly hits Peter before the two men are quickly diving behind some boulders.

“What the hell?” Peter curses, pulling out his handgun. “I thought they’d be closer to the cathedral.”

“Gwen must have them posted all over as a precaution,” Wade grumbles. “It doesn’t appear to be a lot, but we’ll have to be quick and move out.”

Peter nods in response and aims around the boulder to hit the two mercs near him. Wade takes out a couple more in quick succession. The dust seems to settle after those, and Peter sighs in relief.

“Bet she’s got dozens of men all over,” Peter says as he stands. He tucks his gun away. “We’ll have to be quick and careful.”

“That’s what all the ladies call me,” Wade says as he struts forward.

Peter snorts and follows. “I’m sure they do.”

The graveyard is covered in snow as they approach it, but Peter can tell by the amount of footprints tracked through the powder that they won’t have the area to themselves for long. They’re looking for a specific headstone, so they split up to hunt for it.

“What are we looking for again?” Wade asks after a bit of searching. “There are too many stones to sift through and look at every one.”

Peter pulls out the paper from the cross and unrolls it. “Let’s see… crossed cutlasses, skull and crossbones, and the dates 1639 to 1699.”

Wade mutters something Peter can’t hear, but it causes him to smile anyway. He’s really missed working with Wade.

It takes a bit longer, but Peter eventually stumbles upon a headstone with everything they’re looking for. He calls Wade over and wipes the rest of the snow off the stone.

“Benjamin Bridgeman,” Wade reads. “Wasn’t that Avery’s alias?”

“Yeah, but the stone looks weird.” Peter fiddles with the skull sitting in the headstone. “It doesn’t even look like it’s fixed into the stone.”

He keeps messing with it until he manages to turn the skull towards the right. As he does so, a loud noise of grinding stone sounds behind the grave, and the ground starts sinking. When the dust settles, a set of stone stairs is heading down into the ground behind the headstone. The two men exchange an excited look before descending down.

“How’d you figure out that it needed to turn?” Wade asks, lighting a nearby torch with his lighter.

“‘Cause I’m so smart,” Peter jokes, lighting his own torch using Wade’s.

“You really are,” Wade says softly, causing Peter to blush and go quiet. “Why’d you settle for being a journalist? You had so many plans for your future.”

Peter scratches the back of his neck, feeling hot. “I was on this job with an old friend. He, uh... well he ended up backstabbing me. Got me thrown into jail because of it.” He shrugs. “I wasn’t able to get into the school I wanted because I had a record. It’s okay, though. MJ, she… she helped me get the job at the Bugle. I owe her a lot.”

“Who was it?” Wade’s voice goes dangerously low. Peter shivers a little hearing it.

“He’s dead now, Wade, don’t worry.” Peter turns and starts walking. “C’mon, I don’t doubt someone heard the stairs being opened.”

A set of catacombs leading to a large room with a set of doors along the far wall greets them when they get to the bottom. Peter runs his hands over it, looking for a handle when suddenly it lights up with blue stars to form the Libra constellation.

“The scales of justice,” Peter mutters, eyebrows drawn together in confusion. He turns and looks at Wade, who’s just shrugging and gesturing towards the torch on the wall that he just lit up.

“In all honesty, I was just trying to make it brighter in here,” Wade says, grinning easily.

Shaking his head fondly, Peter turns and looks at the door again. One of the lights ends up being a doorknob that he turns. The doors open and a large frosted window is revealed. There are three circular sections that can be looked through, causing an excited shiver to run up Peter’s spine.

“There’s a cross there, and there,” Wade says, pointing at the two on the outside. “The middle one looks like a cave.”

“Avery doesn’t want to make it easy for us, does he?” Peter asks with a laugh.

“Considering the high price tag on the treasure? I wouldn’t blame him for wanting to hide it well and keep it safe.” Wade shrugs. “There’s a problem, though. Getting to the cave means heading back towards the cathedral.”

“Shit,” Peter curses. “We’ll have to play it safe, and keep Tony updated in case shit hits the fan.”

Wade pats Peter’s shoulder with a wide grin. “Let’s get to it!”

“Your enthusiasm never ceases to amuse me,” Peter comments, following after Wade at a leisurely pace.

“This is a shit load of money, Petey! How are you  _ not  _ excited?” Wade asks with a laugh. “Even if we only take a portion of it, we’ll be wealthy men!”

“I thought this was about keeping Harry away from it?” Peter asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Tomato, ta-mah-to.”

A noise sounds from the top of the stairs behind them, bringing them both to pause. Wade puts a hand on Peter’s chest before going forward a little to peek out.

“Shoreline,” Wade tells him softly. “A small group. Likely stationed here until the princess arrives.”

“Can we handle them?” Peter asks, trying to push forward a little to see too.

“We should be able to. Just keep hidden.”

They quietly make their way up, overhearing a few mercenaries talk as they try to sneak back out of the graveyard. They’re doing well for a while until Peter trips and bangs into one of the Shoreline crates a bit too loudly.

“There!” a merc shouts. “Instructions are to kill on sight. Make sure they don’t leave here alive.”

“Goddammit,” Peter swears, pulling out his gun as he stays hidden behind the crate.

Wade goes a different way, trying to take them out from a different angle. Peter is able to take out the ones near him before he attempts to run for the next bit of cover. Dodging bullets isn’t as easy as it seems in the movies– they’re small and hard to see when you’re not looking at the source.

Peter gets shot in the thigh as he’s trying to run to the next cover. He cries out in pain and his leg buckles under him. Unfortunately, it sends him falling down a nearby rockslide.

“Shit!” Peter cries out, fumbling for his grappling hook and rope. As he reaches the end of the cliff, he gets it out and swings the hook towards a nearby branch.

Heart pounding in his chest, Peter doesn’t relax until he feels the familiar jolt of the rope tightening. Mercs stand at the top of the slide, and Peter holds his breath as they look down. He’s just out of sight of them, and he’s terrified to make a single sound until they walk away.

“Okay, where to now?” Peter asks himself, looking around for something to use to climb up.

He looks across the ravine and spots a ledge he can swing over to. Thankful he’s kept in shape over the years, Peter uses his core strength to start swinging and aim towards the ledge. When he’s close enough, he jumps.

“Oh, shit!”

Peter grabs the edge of the ledge, heart racing in his chest once more. He scrambles up and pulls the rope so it’ll release from its hold. As he rolls it back up, Peter looks around for any sign of Wade. Back up on the graveyard grounds, Peter can see Wade fighting hand-to-hand with a few other mercs. He’s handling himself well, but Wade only has so much stamina.

There’s an old bridge further down from where he is, and Peter bolts towards it without thinking. It’s old and the rope is fraying, but he doesn’t care. It shakes under his weight before the rope snaps completely under him halfway across. The bridge collapses, and Peter holds on, swinging with it to the other side.

“God, I hate Scotland,” Peter mutters, climbing up the rest of the bridge. Before he can even think, he pulls out his gun to help Wade, only to arrive and find him just standing there with a grin on his face.

“What took you so long, Petey?” Wade asks, laughing a little.

“God, I hate you,” Peter mutters, laughing despite it all.

“How’s your leg?” Wade asks, walking closer. “Shit, she’s a bleeder.”

“Mostly superficial,” Peter replies with a wave of his hand.

“C’mere, let me patch you up.” Wade gently leads him over to a rock to sit on. He has to tear the jeans a little to get the bullet out. It bleeds, definitely, but it isn’t too deep. Wade takes a bandage and wraps it around his leg. “There you go.”

“Thanks, Wade.” Peter smiles softly at him.

Wade pats the knee of his uninjured leg. “Let’s go, pumpkin.”

**~*~**

“Hey, Tony, we’re heading into a cave. Might not have very good service,” Peter says, talking into his radio. He’s standing outside the large cave entrance with Wade, who’s not too far away.

_ “A cave? I thought you were looking for a grave?” _

“And we found it. It led us to a cave entrance. We’ll make it quick, but we won’t have any communication for a bit.”

_ “Well, shit. Be careful, kid.” _

“You know me. Always am.”

Peter tucks the radio away with a grin before turning to walk in with Wade. The scarred man looks positively gleeful at having an upper hand over Harry.

“For years, we were so damn close,” Wade chatters on. “All we had to do was go to the damn graveyard first.”

“It’s definitely the right place, though.” Peter gestures to the large statues of Saint Dismas lining the long stairway down. “Grandeur is definitely Avery’s type.”

“Does he see himself as some sort of worthy pirate?” Wade asks, snorting. “Decorating a cave with a, uh… what was it? Penitent thief?”

“Avery was certainly on something,” Peter jokes as they reach a large stone door.

There’s a hole in the wall that’s too dark to peer into. Wade walks right up to it and sticks his hand in. Peter panics and grabs Wade’s arm tightly.

“What the hell are you doing? It could be a trap, Wade. You could lose your arm!” Peter says, slightly frantic.

“Pete, it’s our only lead. To be honest, I’d rather lose my hand than our only lead,” Wade says flippantly before looking over at Peter.

Peter isn’t sure what’s on his face, but there must be something concerning there. Wade actually pauses before he sighs and pulls his hand back out, wiping it clean on the leg of his pants.

“Right, yeah. Sorry, Petey.”

Peter runs his hands over other parts of the wall, including the door itself. He sticks his hands along the frame itself, seeing if he and Wade could pull it open. When it doesn’t budge, Peter huffs and stands back. When he looks over at Wade, it looks like he didn’t have any better luck.

Running a hand through his hair, Peter sighs and makes a ‘go ahead’ motion at the hole in the wall.

Wade carefully pushes his hand into it and fumbles around for a moment. He pulls on something and stands back as the stone in the doorway starts rolling to the side and clearing the way.

“Told you it was alright,” Wade says, smiling easily at Peter.

Peter playfully rolls his eyes as they walk through to a small room. There’s a small altar along the far wall of more religious statues, lined to each side by rusted gibbets with old bones. Below the one on the right is a wooden sign, quickly catching Peter’s interest.

“ _ For those who prove worthy, Paradise awaits… to those who prove false, behold your grim fate _ ,” Peter reads it out loud.

“Never let it be said Avery wasn’t a poet,” Wade says with a snort, staring at the statues.

“Wade… this is Tew’s sigil.”

“Thomas Tew?” Wade asks. “The Rhode Island pirate?”

“The very same one.” Peter bites his bottom lip. “He’s involved in this? How?”

Wade shrugs, looking around the small room. “I have no idea,” he says softly. “C’mon, let’s keep going.”

There’s a connecting hallway leading out of the room that they follow forward. It leads into a larger room split by a ravine echoing with the distance crash of waves. The only way across is a broken bridge.

“Looks like a balancing beam,” Wade comments from behind him. “Why would they put this here? Wouldn’t it make getting to the treasure that much harder?”

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Peter mutters, running a hand over his face.

“It wouldn’t make much sense considering you can’t really carry it over this thing,” Wade points out, looking over the side of the ravine. “Unless, of course, they somehow got it down to the water.”

“Let’s just be careful going across this. Stick with me.” Peter reaches back and grabs Wade’s wrist, keeping him close.

The beam creaks ominously under their weight. Peter swallows thickly, glancing back at Wade before keeping his eyes forward. It’s surprisingly holding them despite the loud creaking. Peter is almost willing to believe they got lucky, until the column supporting the beam up starts buckling.

“Run!” Peter yells at Wade before letting go of his wrist and sprinting as fast as he can towards the other side, leg throbbing. He makes the jump before turning and watching as the beam starts collapsing with Wade still on it. “Grab my hand!”

Wade jumps and grabs Peter’s hand as the balancing beam crashes into the ocean below. Both men are breathing heavily as Peter pulls Wade up onto solid ground.

“No more precarious bridges,” Peter swears off, laughing a little as he walks into the next room.

It’s another large room with an altar in the middle of it. There’s a scale sitting on it with an elaborate cross on one side and a handful of gold coins in the other.

“The scales of justice,” Wade says, repeating what Peter had said earlier.

“It’s a test,” Peter realises, eyes wide. “One of the sins is greed. Taking the cross would be getting it wrong. Think about it: it’s the only thing with any sort of gold and jewels we’ve seen in here.”

Wade reaches towards the coins and carefully grabs one of them. They both let out a breath of relief when this floor doesn’t go crumbling underneath them this time. Instead, a panel in the ceiling opens up, sunlight streaming through and revealing something on the floor.

“It’s Madagascar,” Wade points out. He spots a highlighted area and points to it, drawing Peter’s attention,. “Look there. It’s King’s Bay.”

“Avery’s leading us on a goose chase,” Peter says frustrated. “Where’s he going to lead us next?”

“This’ll hopefully be the last place. I mean there’s so many places in King’s Bay where Avery could’ve hid it. Lots of jungles and ocean around there. Lots of places to set up camp.”

“Yeah. Maybe he recruited Tew to help him hide. Maybe they piled their share together. Why else would Avery want Tew on his side other than a bigger pile of gold to stare at?” Peter laughs. “What were you planning, you dirty bastard?”

“That, gentlemen, is for me to find out,” a female voice rings out. Gwen walks in with a group of Shoreline mercs. “You boys are very annoying, you know.”

“Not the first time we’ve heard that, and won’t be the last,” Wade pipes up, earning a glare from Gwen.

“Guns on the floor. Slowly. And don’t make me ask twice; I won’t be as nice the second time.”

Wade and Peter exchange a quick look before they pull out their handguns and carefully toss them onto the floor. A couple mercs rush forward and kick them far out of their reach.

Gwen’s radio crackles to life, Harry’s familiar nasally tone coming through.  _ “I’m at the graveyard. They were fucking here.” _

“I know. I’m looking right at them.” Gwen smirks at them. “Come back towards the Cathedral and follow my men’s blasting holes. We’re underground.”

_ “I’m on my way. Don’t shoot them yet-- I want to see them first.” _

“Might want to hurry, then.” Gwen puts her radio away and strolls forward a bit so she can stare at the map on the floor. “King’s Bay, huh?”

“Yeah, but, uh, where in King’s Bay?” Wade asks. He points to the cross on the altar. “You’ll need that cross over there to help. Unfortunately though, last I checked, Harry wasn’t exactly that good at his religious studies.”

“And let me guess, I’ll need your guys’ help?” Gwen laughs. “Go get the crucifix.”

“It’s not a crucifix,” Peter pipes up.

Gwen glares at him. “What?”

“Well, uh. Technically a crucifix refers to… you know what, never mind.”

Gwen’s eyes widen. “Don’t touch that!”

It’s too late to warn the merc, and he picks up the cross. Peter and Wade run for the sides of the room as the floor with the map on it crumbles under them. Gwen shouts orders to shoot at them to the remaining mercs before she runs off to meet up with Harry. Peter can’t help but feel like Gwen doesn’t like being in the middle of the action.

“We need to head to the beach! That’s where Tony’s waiting for us,” Peter yells to Wade.

Wade nods and ducks as the fallen columns they’re hiding behind get shot at. The stone crumbles under the bullets. Peter takes the lead as they look for a way out. Some stones fall on a couple mercenaries, crushing them. Peter and Wade grab some guns from the fallen mercs and start shooting their way through to make their way back to the beach.

“Gwen really does have an army at her fingertips,” Wade complains as they continue fighting through the mass of mercenaries. Peter manages nothing more than a half-hearted laugh in response.

They’re pushed to the edge of a cliff and surrounded on all sides by Shoreline. Tony’s plane is sitting in the water not far away, so Peter takes a deep breath before jumping into the water below. He hears a splash behind him, indicating Wade made it to the water okay, and they swim as fast as they can towards Tony’s plane.

Tony has the door open ready for them, and he’s quick to pull Peter in. Peter brushes him off towards the wheel and turns around to help Wade.

“Go!” he shouts, closing and latching the door. Bullets are bouncing off the metal walls, but they become less frequent as Tony takes off.

Peter sighs softly once they’re safe, shedding his jacket and grabbing a blanket from storage. Wade has already shed his and is sitting curled up on the bench,

“I’m assuming no treasure?” Tony asks, quirking an eyebrow.

“No.” Peter pouts and sits in the co-pilot seat. He thinks for a moment before digging the coin out of his pocket. “We did find this, though.”

“A whole coin. We’re filthy rich,” Tony drawls sarcastically.

Peter laughs. “We did find a map, too. We’re heading to Madagascar next. King’s Bay, to be more specific.”

“Not specific enough. King’s Bay is a huge amount of land,” Tony says, glancing over at Peter. “I’m assuming Shoreline stopped you, but did you get anything else?”

Peter studies the coin, running a thumb over it. “There’s a mountain on one side of this coin.”

“There’s a volcano in King’s Bay.” Tony looks more excited now. “It’s extinct, but I know exactly where that is.”

“What I don’t get,” Wade speaks up. “Is  _ why  _ Avery even sent us to Scotland in the first place.”

“He’s recruiting,” Peter whispers before repeating it louder. “Think about it: the balancing beam? The scales? You’d have to  _ at least  _ be familiar with Saint Dismas and the story of Jesus.”

“Recruiting for what, though?” Wade huffs softly.

“We found Tew’s sigil. Maybe there’s more pirates Avery was recruiting,” Peter theorizes. “If that’s the case, is this even about a treasure anymore?”

“How so?” Tony asks.

Peter looks down at the coin with furrowed eyebrows. “I don’t know yet. I’m sure we’ll figure it out soon enough, though.”

Tony hums softly, reaching forward to turn on the radio. Peter heads to sit in the back with Wade, the both of them relaxing into their seats with a sigh.

Peter lightly bumps Wade’s shoulder with his. “Did you really think Avery would make it easy?” he jokes.

“Honestly? No. Just didn’t think he’d make it  _ this  _ hard.” Wade sighs. “I’m glad we’re doing this again.”

Peter smiles. “I am, too, Wade.”

He lays his head on Wade’s shoulder, noting how Wade tenses minutely. It takes him a moment before he relaxes again. Peter smiles to himself and closes his eyes.

**~*~**

“You’re such a control freak,” Peter says, laughing at Tony.

Tony glares at him. “I just like driving,” he insists. “You’re a shit driver.”

“You’re the one who taught me,” Peter shoots back, smirking.

Tony grumbles, but doesn’t say anything else.

Peter turns to look at Wade in the backseat of the jeep. He swallows thickly when he sees Wade glancing out at all the passing scenery. The sunlight is hitting him nicely, accenting the sharp line of his jawline and making his blue eyes appear brighter. Peter stomps down on the rising feelings in his chest and turns to look out the window himself.

“Hey, stop,” Peter says quickly, unbuckling his seatbelt.

Tony does so, despite being confused. Peter hops out and jogs towards the tower he spotted. He climbs the broken stairs and pauses in surprise when he sees the sigil on the floor. Wade must have come too, judging by the footsteps that follow.

“What are you doing?” Wade asks, stopping behind him.

Peter points at the sigil. “It’s another symbol.”

“Adam Baldridge,” Wade fills in. He looks around the small tower in awe. “How many pirates did Avery recruit?”

“Do they all have towers like this?” Peter asks, sighing. “Fuck.”

“Wait. More pirates equal a bigger pool,” Wade says, grinning a little.

“That’s if they’re willing to share it.” Peter laughs. “Pirates aren’t exactly known for being courteous.”

“Let’s go look for more.” Wade’s still grinning as he jogs back to the jeep. Peter’s reluctant, knowing Shoreline must know about the sigils too, but follows behind nonetheless.

They only drive for about ten minutes before they’re coming across another tower. This time, however, it’s crawling with Shoreline mercenaries.

“We have the drop on them,” Peter says softly as Tony parks behind a large outcropping of rock. “Let’s do this quietly, yeah? We don’t need anymore attention. If we’re lucky, Harry probably thinks we’re dead.”

Wade and Tony nod in agreement, and the three of them split up, keeping hidden in the tall grass surrounding the tower. Peter heads to a small broken building to the right of it. There’s one man inside and Peter takes him out quietly by choking him out. Before he can move on to the next one, a large explosion rocks the area. Peter jumps a foot in the air in surprise. When he peeks out of his hiding place, he sees Wade grinning and picking up another grenade.

“Dammit, Wade!”

Peter stays in the building, using it for cover as he takes out any mercenaries he can see. A bullet suddenly whizzes by him and he ducks with a yelp. There’s a merc to the right of him, hiding outside the building wall and shooting through the window. Peter huffs and shoots him the next time he pops his head up.

As soon as he can, Peter breaks cover and runs towards where Tony’s hiding behind some crates. Tony’s muttering to himself, “fucking Wilson,”, and Peter can’t help snickering at it.

There are a lot of mercenaries hiding all over the tower; behind downed walls and various other weapons crates. Peter was lucky he didn’t end up with anything worse than scrapes and grazes.

“Really Wilson?” Tony yells as soon as the air is clear. “What happened to doing it quietly?”

“It looked fun!” Wade replies, grinning widely. Peter huffs, trying his best not to smile.

“We’ll probably have to deal with more Shoreline mercs in the other towers,” Peter says, interrupting whatever Tony was about to say. “Just… let’s do it as quickly as we can. We need to get to whatever we’re after before Harry and Gwen do.”

“Aye aye, Captain!”

Peter rolls his eyes with a smile of his own as they head back to the jeep.

~*~

By the time they reach Avery’s tower, Peter is exhausted. He’s sweating heavily and bleeding from various wounds. Wade and Tony aren’t fairing much better. Though, Wade doesn’t seem to be bleeding as much, despite the wounds Peter witnessed him getting.

“Fucking finally,” Wade mutters, kicking a rock away from Avery’s sigil on the floor.

Peter snorts and walks towards the opposite wall where a map of King’s Bay is mounted. A statue of Saint Dismas is standing proudly in the middle, pirate sigils littering the map around him.

“There’s twelve of them,” Wade says. He points to Avery’s. “We’re here. And we need to get to… I have no idea.”

Peter takes out the coin from Scotland and flips it to view the side they hadn’t looked at yet. On it sits a small scale. “Look, guys. It’s Edward England’s sigil.”

“Yeah, but it’s all worn down. It could be Joseph Farrell’s, too,” Tony points out. He takes the coin and flips it, holding it next to the pointed trident.

Peter opens his mouth to reply when more gunshots ring out through the air. They dive for cover behind fallen pillars, cursing all the while. There aren’t too many Shoreline mercs pouring in, making it easy to get them out of the way.

“I’m too fucking old for this shit,” Tony complains, running a hand over his face. “I’ll head to Farrell’s tower if you two want to check out England’s?”

“Are you sure?” Peter asks, quirking an eyebrow. “I feel bad separating from you when there’s Shoreline all over the place.”

“Don’t worry about it, kid. I offered and I  _ have  _ been doing this a lot longer than you.” Tony huffs lightly. “Besides, I’m the one who doubted the coin. I’ll be the one to check it out.”

Peter sighs softly and nods. “Alright. Be careful.”

“You too, kid.”

~*~

“I’ve always wanted to see a market like this,” Wade comments, looking around at all the booths and food. The street smells absolutely amazing. “I want to try all the food!”

“Wade, focus.” Peter laughs softly. “Though I do gotta admit, it is pretty cool. The food smells good.”

Wade walks away without another word. Peter rolls his eyes and waits for him to come back. They don’t exactly have time to dawdle, but once Wade has his mind set on something, it’s hard to get him back on track. Wade comes back with a small necklace in his hands. 

Peter raises an eyebrow in question, but Wade just smiles softly at him. He goes behind Peter and puts a hand on his shoulder so he doesn’t move away. Peter swallows thickly as Wade gently puts the necklace around his neck, fingers gently brushing his skin as he hooks it together.

“What’s this for?” Peter asks softly, too scared to speak much louder.

Wade shrugs, blushing a little. “I thought it would look pretty on you,” he admits, smiling a little.

Peter blushes himself, fingering the charm and clearing his throat softly. “We should get going.”

He’s thankfully distracted when a nearby lemur jumps onto his shoulders. Peter laughs and scratches under its chin before it jumps down to scurry back to who Peter assumes to be its owner.

“I’ve always wanted to see a lemur,” Peter says with a laugh. When he turns to Wade, the man is looking at him with a soft look on his face. The blush returns in full force.

They leave the bazaar together, heading to a tower sitting tall at the edge of town. When they try the front door, it refuses to budge. Peter spots a broken window off to the side that they can climb up to and points it out to Wade.

It feels a little weird to go climbing and searching for treasure alone with Wade. It’s nice, though, and something he really missed when Peter thought he was dead. Wade always seems to know how to make him smile during any type of situation.

Once they’re through the window, Wade starts clearing the dust from the floor, “Look, Avery’s sigil!” 

Peter quickly sends a text off to Tony before pulling the coin back out of his pocket. There’s a spot in the middle of the sigil that he can put the coin in. When he does, they both step back as the sigil starts moving. With a grinding noise filling the air, it reveals a set of stairs that leads down further into the tower.

“There’s been a lot of stairs going down,” Wade says with a snort. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more.”

They head down the stairs, eventually coming out in the middle of a room. At its center is a large circular altar. On the surface is a series of sigils-- twelve in total. Peter runs his fingers over them, biting his bottom lip in thought.

“Henry Avery, Thomas Tew, Edward England, Richard Want, Christopher Condent, um…” Peter tries hard to remember the others, tapping his fingers along the next one.

“Tariq bin Malik, William Mayes, Joseph Farrell, Anne Bonny, Yazid al-Basra, Adam Baldrige, and Guy Wood,” Wade finishes, smirking.

The two of them fiddle with the various sigils, moving them around, until a loud groaning sounds. They step back a little and the altar suddenly flips around, revealing a map of a nearby set of small islands. They share an excited look and Peter sends a picture of it to Tony to keep him updated on what they found.

“Pro Deus quod licentia,” Peter reads before brightening considerably. “Wade, holy shit! For God and liberty!”

Wade’s eyes widen. “The legends are true, then. Pete… this is huge! Libertalia, the legendary pirate colony. It’s why Avery recruited all the pirates. He was leading them to a pirate utopia!”

“Hundreds, maybe even thousands of pirates, would’ve shared everything; property, resources, _money_! It would have been all kept in a common treasury building.” Peter can’t stop smiling. His phone buzzes in his pocket and he pulls it out. He furrows his eyebrows when he sees an unfamiliar number. “Hello?”

_ “Hello, Peter,”  _ a familiar voice says into the phone. Peter’s blood grows cold.

“How’d you get this number, Harry? I thought I had you blacklisted,” Peter says, exchanging a look with Wade. “Did you have to put out for it?”

Harry ignores the jab.  _ “I know how to ask the right questions. Listen… if you walk away now, we’ll leave you be. Forgive and forget, for old time’s sake.” _

Peter huffs. “Not a chance in hell, Osborn.”

Harry hums softly in thought.  _ “Pro Deus quod licentia, right? Great photo composition.” _

“You hacked our phones.”

_ “You stole my cross!”  _ Harry responds, angry.  _ “Last chance to back away now, Peter.” _

“Screw you, Harry.” Peter goes to hang up, but Harry says something more to try and get his attention. “What?”

_ “You do realise phones are equipped with GPS, right?”  _ Harry chuckles.  _ “See you soon, old friend.” _

“Goddammit.” Peter hangs up and quickly places another call. “Tony, listen to me. Destroy your phone. Harry’s tracking us!”

_ “What about the map?” _

“We’ll just have to meet up with you somewhere. See you soon.”

Wade and Peter both drop their phones on the ground and crush them. They rush back towards the street market, heading through the front door after removing the board that kept it locked. People give them odd looks before they’re all sent screaming and ducking as Shoreline mercs rush in and start shooting.

“Let’s get to the tower where Tony is,” Peter shouts towards Wade, who nods in agreement.

There are mercenaries everywhere. Peter eventually runs out of bullets in his gun and has to pull one off a dead merc to keep pushing through them. They’re surrounded wherever they go and end up going far off course.

“Pete, we’ll have to meet Tony at Libertalia,” Wade tells him. They’re both panting and hiding behind a bullet ridden car. “We won’t be able to get down there without facing more bullets.”

“I don’t like being separated from Tony,” Peter replies.

“He knows how to handle himself. We don’t have much of a choice.”

Peter sighs before nodding. They run towards the docks and grab the first empty boat they spot.


	4. at sea

The salty sea air smells wonderful as Wade drives the boat towards a set of islands. Peter’s sitting in the back, staring out at the clear blue water, wind tousling his curls every which way as the boat cuts through the water. The boat’s radio plays softly in the front, some words cutting through the pleasant haze Peter finds himself in as he thinks.

“What’s going on in that head of yours, honey bunches of oats?” Wade asks, breaking through the brain fog.

“I just feel guilty that we left Tony back there,” Peter answers, sitting up straighter. The sun feels nice on his skin, and if he wasn’t so worried, he’d be enjoying the sunshine more. “I mean, I know he can handle himself out there. Hell, he’s been in this for far longer than I have, but we’ve never just… _abandoned_ each other like this. We all broke our phones! We have no way to get a hold of him.”

Wade is quiet for a moment. The only sounds around them are the waves and the birds, calming Peter’s anxious thoughts slightly with the atmosphere it creates around them.

“Like you said, Pete, he can take care of himself,” Wade finally says. His shoulders are slightly tense, but there’s no other indication that he’s as worried as Peter is. “Besides, he hasn’t been climbing around like we have. Honestly, baby boy, he’d probably just stay in the boat the whole time. Let’s just… focus on everything around us. The view’s gorgeous, sweets.”

Peter smiles at Wade, catching from the corner of his eye as the older man reaches down into the cooler. He can’t help but snort as Wade takes a long drink from the bottle and sighs happily.

“Mock me all you want, but there’s nothing better than a beer while out on the water,” Wade says, grinning back at the younger man.

“Can’t argue with that,” Peter says, standing up to grab one of his own. He playfully clinks his bottle against Wade’s before taking a drink.

He stands next to Wade and watches as the islands start to grow larger as they get closer. Peter closes his eyes and lets the salty sea air blow over him and the amazing scent of the sea fill his nose. Wade is also quiet next to him, which is slightly strange for him. Anytime there’s silence, he’s usually filling it with some sort of story or joke.

Finally, Peter opens his eyes and breaks the silence. There’s a persistent thought he’s had since Wade came back into his life that he can’t hold back anymore. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Why did you just leave?”

Wade keeps quiet, making Peter deflate a bit. Even after fifteen years, Wade still avoid answering questions. The avoidance is really starting to grate on his nerves, but before he can stew in it for much longer, Wade finally speaks up.

“I didn’t want to ruin it for you,” Wade says, his voice just barely loud enough to hear over the motor of the boat. “If you knew, you’d… you would’ve stopped looking. But, Pete, this treasure… we’d been searching for _years_. I didn’t want you to give that up ‘cause of me.”

“That’s bullshit,” Peter says angrily. He sets his beer down roughly on top of the cooler. “Nothing, not even this treasure, could ever mean more to me than you do. You… you _left me_ . You were the only family I had left, Wade, and you just disappeared.” Peter blinks away the tears that have suddenly appeared in his eyes. “It was hell wondering where you went off to. The treasure didn’t matter to me because I was too worried about why you left me behind. _Fifteen years_ , Wade.”

Wade goes quiet again, looking properly chastised and guilty. “Peter, I’m… I’m sorry.”

“I thought you were dead,” Peter whispers. “I exhausted every single resource I had. You either had to be dead or missing, and either option didn’t sound good. But it was easier to accept that instead of thinking that you had just left me. And that’s exactly what you fucking did.”

The boat starts slowing down before Wade turns to look at him. Peter looks up to meet his eyes, reminding him a lot of the days when they were younger. The height difference isn’t as drastic, but standing before Wade, he still feels small. Peter swallows thickly and ignores the way his chest tightens at the thought that Wade just up and left him.

“The cancer changed me, baby boy. More than just physically. I didn’t want you to pity me for those changes,” Wade says, looking into Peter’s eyes. It makes something churn in his gut. “And please don’t ask what, I’m not ready for that. To, well, admit that to both you and myself. Even after all these years, I still value your opinion the most.”

“I wouldn’t pity you, Wade, ever,” Peter says firmly.

“I didn’t miss the way you looked at my scars for the first time, pumpkin.” Wade smiles sadly. “It wasn’t exactly hard to miss when you see that look all the time.”

“I was surprised you were alive!” Peter says, poking Wade in the shoulder. “After fifteen years, surely you can excuse my surprise. Your scars have never once bothered me.” He lets out a shaky sigh. “The last time I saw you, you were seventeen.”

Wade looks away and fiddles with the bottle in his hands as he tries to hide the look of guilt written all over his face. Peter looks away himself, letting out another sigh before gently pushing past Wade to stand at the wheel.

“C’mon, big guy, we’ve got a legendary pirate colony to discover,” Peter says, giving the other a small smile.

Wade remains quiet, even as he sits where Peter was moments prior. Peter can see the multiple smaller islands now, looking for any sort of man-made structure sitting amongst any of the foliage. He’s straining his eyes as he looks, but there’s something on the horizon.

“I’m sorry, Peter,” Wade says, taking Peter off guard. He sounds so genuine that Peter couldn’t hold a grudge against him even if he tried. “I’m sorry I just vanished like I did. I didn’t realise it would affect you that much. I was trying to protect you.”

“I know, Wade.” Peter smiles back at him. “I’m really thankful to see you in one piece, at least, and _alive_. You know me; not sure if I could stay mad at you for long. Never have, and I doubt I ever will be.”

Wade doesn’t add anything else, and the two of them fall into a comfortable silence as they approach the first island. All the islands are covered in jungle and large outcroppings of rock. Along the shorelines are almost white sand beaches leading up to dirt paths heading further inland.

“Wade, look. There’s a tower,” Peter says, pointing towards the island closest to them. There’s a tower high up on a tall hill of dirt and rock, nearly lost to nature. “How are we supposed to get up there?”

“Let’s follow the path and hope for the best,” Wade says, excitedly squeezing his shoulders. “This is a great sign, though, sweetums.”

Peter beams up at Wade before steering closer to the shore and anchoring the boat. Hoping his shoes don’t get too wet, the two men hop off the boat and hurry onto dry land.

“I’ve already got sand in my shoes,” Wade complains, causing Peter to laugh as they hurry towards the dirt path.

Despite wearing lighter clothing, Peter’s already starting to sweat. There are patches of mud along the path, making Peter grateful he wore his hiking boots. Birds and insects make noise around them, ruffling leaves or buzzing annoyingly in their face.

“Petey, look,” Wade says, putting a hand on Peter’s arm to stop him. He points to a nearby cave where skeleton feet are sticking out, along with a couple crates of supposed supplies.

“We’re on the right path,” Peter says, grinning. “Other pirates must’ve gotten sick or lost.”

“This particular island doesn’t seem big enough to warrant people getting lost,” Wade points out. “Plus the trees and brush aren’t that thick. We can still see our boat from here.”

“Shot, then,” Peter corrects. “Pirates are greedy bastards.”

The path isn’t very long, and soon Peter and Wade are standing at the base of the tower. It looked taller from the water, but still high enough that they’ll need to climb it. Using his rope and grapple, Peter ascends up the side of the tower to a blown opening at the top, Wade climbing after him. A small old cannonball sits partially in the opposite wall, having lost speed from hitting the first one.

Peter runs a hand over the old brick wall, stirring up dust and dirt and revealing a golden circle with an arrow pointing up etched onto it. He hums softly and lets his fingers ghost over the edges of the arrow. Wanting to take a closer look, Peter leans forward and accidentally pushes onto the circle. He can’t help but jump back in surprise as the wall starts moving, revealing a window out towards the ocean.

“What the hell?” Peter mutters, exchanging a look with Wade.

The two of them look out the window, searching for any sort of clue. Peter spots a large arrow etched into a large stone down near their boat. He quickly points it out to Wade.

“Look, another arrow. They must be pointing somewhere. What do you say we follow them?” Peter says excitedly. “Hopefully it leads to Libertalia. I’m getting tired of the run around.”

~*~

“Are you serious?” Peter asks, standing in the middle of the room.

The two men have found themselves in a large circular room. The arrows lead them to another island with a large building partially sunken into the ground. They had to climb up to an open window and work their way back down, which led them to their current spot.

Sighing, Peter eyes the puzzle on the wall, trying to figure out how he’s supposed to move the large stones to match the shadows. Around them are empty pedestals that neither of them know what they’re there for. After making confused eye contact with Wade, Peter approaches the ship’s wheel in the middle of the room and starts spinning it, hoping for the best.

The pedestals eventually open up and statues of the different pirate captains come up. When eleven have popped up, a door is revealed with the words _‘Founders of Libertalia’_ above it.

“Where’s our star pirate?” Peter asks, heading towards the doorway. “This doesn’t make any sense. Why all the tests?”

“I mean, they didn’t want to be found. Maybe these are to test pirates wanting to go to this pirate utopia,” Wade guesses, quickly following behind Peter. “They had to be worthy enough to enter.”

The minute they both step foot through the door, the floor under them starts moving, lifting them up to the top of the building. As it does, off in the distance, a massive statue of Captain Avery appears.

“Finally a statue as big as your ego,” Peter quips, earning a look from Wade. “Or Avery’s. Man clearly loved the sight of his own face.”

“Or he’s trying to make up for other short-comings,” Wade remarks, smirking. Peter just rolls his eyes.

The island the statue is on is the one where they first landed, making Peter frustrated with the back and forth. They were led away from the island only to come right back to it.

“He isn’t looking into his spyglass,” Peter points out, looking up at the large statue. He tries seeing what Avery’s pointing towards, but not seeing anything in particular. “What are we looking for?”

“Let’s take a look, then,” Wade says, getting into position to lift Peter up to the small ledge just big enough to stand on.

Letting out a breath, Peter puts a foot in Wade’s waiting hands and definitely _does not_ squeak as he’s lifted.

“It’s another island,” Peter says, peering through the small opening. “Are you fucking serious? We might as well just head to England at this rate.”

“C’mon, baby boy. Tell me you didn’t miss this,” Wade says, steadying Peter as he jumps down. “Especially with me.”

Peter sighs softly. “No, you’re right,” he admits. “Especially with you.”

“Let’s finish this then, yeah?” Wade asks, bringing out his puppy eyes.

“Oh, fuck you.” Laughing, Peter lightly shoves Wade’s shoulder. “Your damn puppy eyes always get me.”

“Why do you think I always break them out when I want to get my way?” Wade asks, snickering. His grin suddenly drops as he spots something over Peter’s shoulder.

Furrowing his eyebrows, Peter turns around to see what he’s looking at. His eyes widen when he sees the approaching boats.

“Fucking Shoreline,” Peter curses before taking off towards their boat, Wade hot on his heels.

The sky above them is considerably darker since they got to the island. Peter curses again as rain starts to fall when they jump into the boat.

“Hold on!” Peter grabs the wheel and yells to Wade the second he gets the anchor inside.

Peter throws the boat into gear as fast as he can manage, trying to race the mercenaries to the larger island. The rain is starting to come down heavier now, pouring and making it difficult to see.

“There are too many to outrun!” Wade yells, the sound of a gun firing following afterwards.

“Take out as many as you can,” Peter shouts, trying to navigate through the waves. The water churns dangerously under them now, nearly capsizing them numerous times. “Shit, Wade, this was a dumb idea!”

“It’s not like we have a choice. Just try to pass as many as you can.”

There are at least a dozen boats around them filled with mercs trying to kill them. Peter has to duck at one point when a bullet goes flying through the windshield, shattering the glass everywhere.

“Peter!”

“I’m fine. Keep shooting!”

Peter white knuckles the steering wheel, trying his best to keep the boat upright despite the high waves and being surrounded by hundreds of mercenaries. The rain is falling directly in his eyes now because of the broken windshield, making it difficult to steer in the right direction.

“Peter, watch out!” Wade yells, suddenly frantic.

“What?”

Peter gets his answer when a large boat suddenly rams into the side of theirs, sending them both flying out into the dark water.

The last thing Peter hears is Wade shouting for him.

**~*~**

Peter gasps for air as he crawls onto the beach, his fingers digging into the muddy sand. The only thing he can hear is the sound of the pouring rain. He’s soaked to the bone and absolutely freezing. He feels weak, stumbling onto his feet and looking around. Night has fallen and the rain certainly isn’t helping any.

“Wade!” Peter calls out, hair and clothes sticking to him. He shivers and tries rubbing his arms to warm himself up to no avail. “Wade, where are you?”

Each step he takes feels like he’s walking with weights on his feet. He’s freezing and wet, and it’s _still raining._ Wade, nor Shoreline, is anywhere to be seen. Peter can’t even see any sort of hint of light, making him panic slightly at the thought that he was thrown far off course.

“Higher ground… I need… I need to get to higher ground…” Peter mutters to himself, feeling weak as he starts the trek inland. “ _‘We have no choice, Peter. We have to get there before them.’_ Look where that’s gotten us, _Wade_.”

The rocks are slick under his hands and feet, making it difficult to climb them to get up higher. He uses any ledges he can slide along to get better and more studier footing. While he loves climbing everywhere and anywhere he can, doing so on wet rock isn’t ideal. Peter can’t get a good grip on anything, but he’s doing the best he can.

“Wade!” Peter calls out again, upset when the pouring rain easily drowns out his voice. “Wade!”

Peter pushes his hair out of his eyes, feeling frustrated and alone on the island. He can’t see anyone around for miles. He continues climbing, starting to feel desperate to see anything, even if it’s a Shoreline merc. At least it would mean he isn’t alone on this godforsaken island.

In his desperate rush, Peter takes the wrong step. His foot misses the edge of the next ledge, and he slips and starts to fall. Peter lands hard on his arm in a small cave, groaning in pain. He takes a moment to just sit there and catch his breath, but since he’s not keeping himself moving, Peter eventually passes out.

~*~

The first thing Peter realises when he comes to is that it’s no longer raining. The second thing is that he is _fucking sore_.

Peter sits up with a groan, blinking away the sleep in his eyes. He must’ve been out for a while. His clothes and hair are completely dry, and the only part of the rocks that are still damp are the ones hidden in the shadows. His head still spins slightly as he stands, but it’s quick to dissipate as he stumbles to the mouth of the cave.

It’s morning now. The sun is barely peeking out from the horizon, casting everything in a soft glow. It’s easy on his still sleepy eyes, and if he was more awake, he’d be panicking about how long he was out. As it is, Peter quickly becomes distracted when a light suddenly flashes from a large mountain nearby.

“S… I… C…” Peter’s eyes widen and he quickly scrambles for his flashlight. It’s a few feet away on the ground, and by the time he grabs it and starts to tap out “P” in morse code, the flashing’s stopped. “Seriously, Wade? Why’d you choose such a long saying? Did you really think you had enough time for ‘ _sic parvis magna_ ’?”

Peter tucks the flashlight into his belt and stares out across the parts of the island he can see. The flashing came from a large creepy looking mountain that looks like it’s on the other side of the island. The island is covered in thick jungle with numerous smaller mountains of pure rock. The tallest and creepiest mountain reminds Peter a lot of the Jaguar mountain in _Jumanji: The Next Level_ with its shape of a yawning mouth and sharp teeth.

“And you also pick the scariest mountain, because of course you would,” Peter mutters as he starts walking.

It’s a lot easier to climb on the rocks now that it’s not raining. He’s able to keep his footing a lot better and climb up the side of the rock without worrying about slipping and falling down (again). He’s still sore all over, a very prevalent reminder that he hasn’t done this sort of thing in a few years. It’s all muscle memory, though, despite the way his muscles protest. He knows from experience that it’ll be easier once he’s warmed up again.

When he makes it to the top of a small cliff, Peter can spot a few Shoreline boats filled with mercs in the water. He can’t even pretend to hear what they’re saying, but he can guess. Based on the way they’re shining lights onto the shore, they’re probably looking for him and Wade.

“Please be careful, you giant _idiot_ ,” Peter says, looking back towards the mountain.

Keeping his back to the mercenaries, Peter continues on his way towards the place he assumes Wade to be. No other person on this island would try to send a message only Peter would know. Granted, it’s been quite a few years since Peter’s interest in Sir Francis Drake, but Wade would remember Peter’s story of breaking into the museum to grab his ring.

_“Greatness from small beginnings, Pete! That’s exactly what we’ll be.”_

Peter comes across a group of mercenaries when he’s further inland. It’s later on in the day now, and the sun is starting to make him sweat. It’s clearly affecting the mercenaries too, as they wipe the sweat from their eyes and swat bugs out of their faces.

“Which one did they spot?” A nearby Shoreline merc says near him. Peter quickly ducks behind a fallen tree to listen to their conversation.

“The fucked up looking one,” The other says, making Peter angry on Wade’s behalf. “He killed a few of ours and took off.”

“You think the other one’s alive?”

“Until we find a body, I’m going with yeah.”

The first merc scoffs, kicking at a rock. “How the hell did they survive that wreck? I saw the boat, it was completely demolished.”

“They keep getting lucky, but eventually, luck runs out.”

“There goes the security deposit,” Peter mutters as the mercs move away from him.

There’s likely at least a dozen more in the area, and Peter has no intentions of looking like swiss cheese anytime soon. Keeping low to the ground, Peter uses various trees and bushes to keep out of sight from the mercs. He nearly runs head first into a supply crate, muttering curses as he pinches his finger opening it to grab a gun and some ammo.

“I hate this island,” Peter says to himself, crawling now until he’s sure he’s safe. “Wade, if you’re not dead already, I’m going to kill you.”

His knees crack as he stands up, and he makes a face before starting walking again. Some birds start cawing as he accidentally disturbs them from climbing up a nearby tree to get a look. He’s… still quite far away, but at least the distance from the cave pleases him.

Peter starts getting tired and in desperate need to rest for a minute, but he pushes on. His need to find Wade overpowers his fatigue as he climbs yet another cliff face. Only, this one isn’t nearly as sturdy as the others and starts crumbling under his hands. It takes everything in him to climb the rest of the way up in time before the rocks finally breaks. Adrenaline and muscle memory is the only thing he has when he hears footsteps rushing towards him.

On the other end of his gun is Wade, who’s also pointing his own right at Peter.

“I nearly shot your head off,” Wade says, dropping his arm. “Fuck. I’ve been looking all over for you.”

The relief Peter feels is immense. He wants to run over and hug Wade for seeing him safe, but refraines. “What the hell are we doing?”

“Looking for treasure…?” Wade replies, looking confused.

“No, I mean… Wade, our supplies are at the bottom of the Indian ocean,” Peter says, gesturing behind him where the water can be seen from their height. “Gwen and Harry are on our asses with an entire army, and Tony has no idea where we are.”

“We’ve been holding our own against Shoreline,” Wade argues.

“Yeah, while being marooned on an unknown island,” Peter remarks dryly.

“We were trying to get here, Peter.”

“When we had an escape plan!” Peter huffs. “Let’s just… secure one of Harry’s boats first, alright?”

“The boats can wait,” Wade snaps, making Peter flinch in surprise. “I… I came back to do this with _you_. I figured a successful treasure hunter like you would want to finish a job and find Libertalia with me.”

“I knew you were jealous.” Peter shakes his head. “Besides, have you seen any sign of this pirate utopia? Because all I’ve seen are trees and bugs.”

“It’s a little late for doubts, dontcha think?”

“Do we even have any proof that this idea of Avery’s ever panned out? Maybe he spent all the money on elaborate tests for something that he ultimately failed to make.”

“I’m finding this treasure, Peter,” Wade says, voice strangely even. Peter’s never heard Wade use that tone on him, and he’s not sure if he likes it. “You’re more than welcome to go home, if you want to.”

Peter lets out a shaky sigh and turns his head away. This whole thing is messing with him, and he can’t think straight.

“I just think you’re being too optimistic,” Peter says finally. “All these tests? Bouncing from place to place? The only clue we even have that Libertalia exists is a quote on a map.”

“Is that not enough for you?” Wade asks. “You’re just being pessimistic. It’s not like Avery was exactly advertising this place. He didn’t want the law to find him.”

Peter goes to respond when something over Wade’s shoulder catches his eye. He walks over to it and brushes some vines aside, revealing a stone sigil from Henry Avery.

“What’d I tell you?” Wade says, stepping up next to him. “Too pessimistic.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Peter mutters, trying (and failing) not to smile at Wade’s obvious enthusiasm.

There’s a worn pathway leading further into the jungle. Peter trips over a root and Wade is the only thing keeping him from falling flat on his face. He ignores the ever present smirk on Wade’s face and continues forward, pretending his face doesn’t heat up at Wade’s hand on his arm.

You would think fifteen years would be long enough to get over a stupid little crush, but apparently not.

It’s not very long until they come across an old wooden structure. It’s half rotten and mostly fallen, lost to nature and time. On each side is what Peter assumes to be a wall of sorts, tall and made of stone. Pieces of it are missing, but they aren’t big enough for two men to squeeze through. Still, it’s something, and it makes Peter excited.

“Do you see this?” Peter asks, stopping just short of the building. There’s no other way over the wall than through the building.

“Let’s hope there’s more on the other side.” Wade grins down at Peter, making the younger’s stomach erupt in butterflies, much like what happened when they were younger.

Clearing his throat softly, Peter climbs up onto the roof of the building and drops down inside. It’s even more rotten on the inside, and they have to crawl through fallen support beams and half crumbled walls. Once they’re on the other side, they pause in disbelief at the sight before them.

“Holy shit, Petey,” Wade breathes out, eyes scanning every last bit of the street in front of them. “Are you seeing this?”

“Hard not to,” Peter replies, feeling that rush of contentment and excitement filling him all at once. “There’s no houses here. Wide street, so it must be the commercial district.”

“Thanks for the update, baby boy, but I’m more in shock at the fact that we’re in _Libertalia_. Discovered by one Wade Wilson… and his slightly less charming best friend who happened to be tagging along for the ride. You know, I always knew you’d make something of yourself one day.”

“This isn’t my first lost city,” Peter points out, but he’s smiling too wide not to let his true feelings shine through.

“Yeah, yeah, shush. Just… enjoy the moment.”

Tall buildings line the sides of the old cobblestone road, though it’s more grass than stone now. A half fallen stable is just to the right of them, showing the skeletal remains of a long dead horse. The rest of the stable lies in disarray, things thrown about and abandoned where they lay. There are a few other similar buildings: a bar, a forge, a jail ( _“Can you imagine who pirates put in a prison? A bit hypocritical, don’t ya think?” “Every group has its assholes, Wade.”_ ), and an inn.

“You know,” Wade says after a moment. “If anybody had to discover those lost cities, I’m really glad it was you.”

Peter blushes hotly as he looks at Wade. There’s a soft look on his face that Peter has never seen on him before. It has him blushing again for a whole different reason, and his heart to race in his chest.

When he goes to reply, Wade continues. “You discovered them without me, of course, but we can’t have it all.”

Whatever soft moment there was is broken and Peter glares lightly at him and playfully punches his shoulder. “Let’s head towards that building over there.”

“The one with a massive guard tower?”

“It’s a good sign, yeah?” Peter smirks at Wade as he starts walking. “Let’s go see what it was guarding.”

On previous trips, Peter spent too much time running from gunfire to take in all the sights of the lost cities. He doesn’t have to do that this time around, and actually gets to explore the old buildings. Granted, more than a few have become inaccessible from time and nature, but getting to touch and see buildings that were made hundreds of years ago is still as exciting as ever.

Wade jokingly calls Peter a nerd at one point because he found him pouring over an old journal that was still legible despite being through years upon years of weather and sunlight. Well… most of it is legible, anyway.

There’s a moment when they’re in the forge that Wade picks up one of the old swords.

“Avast, ye dirty dog!” Wade says, pointing the sword at Peter.

They both watch as the rusted metal breaks off, leaving Wade pointing nothing but the handle at Peter.

“Cute,” Peter says, snorting as he turns away. He can feel the pout Wade’s sending at his back.

They’re in the residential area now, where it’s not as cluttered and there aren’t any prisoner stocks on the sidewalk. The atmosphere is also calmer somehow, the light shining prettily through the trees and down onto the old colony.

Peter enters one of the houses and the smile he’d been sporting dims when he spots a straw stuffed doll laying on the floor. He picks it up and sighs sadly. “What happened here?” he asks aloud, looking at the other toys that are on the floor.

“It looks like everybody just… left,” Wade says. “But why?”

“God I wish I brought my camera with me,” Peter says, setting the doll down as he looks around the place. “I left it on the boat.”

“Which is now underwater,” Wade says, sighing softly. He bites his bottom lip before looking back at Peter. “C’mon, sweets, we better get a move on before Harry and Gwen find us.”

“Yeah, good idea,” Peter says, continuing to look around as they make their way towards the large building from earlier.

He’s a bit bummed they can’t look around more; he adores history and everything he can get from looking at old artifacts, especially when he’s the first to see it since it was last used. He also knows Wade didn’t want to remind him, either. The older man has spent countless hours listening to Peter nerd out over the littlest of things. If you let him, Peter could easily spend hours on the American revolution if you let him (which MJ did, once, and later regretted).

“Well at least we know money can’t buy taste,” Peter jokes as they step into the financial district.

The particular building they’re in is large and ostentatious, filled with gaudy stone work and over-the-top stairway. Peter isn’t sure what the building is supposed to be since most of it crumbled when a tree fell on it. Still, there are large paintings of what Peter guesses are influential members of Libertalia and old vases.

When they’re on the other side of the building, the two men stop in their tracks once more.

The large building Peter pointed out ends up being the treasury building. But instead of finding the usual foliage covered decor, there are bodies upon bodies lining the yard leading up to the building.

“What the hell?” Peter breathes out. “It looks like a war broke out here. Look at all the equipment. Cannons… guns… swords.”

“Could it be the colonists trying to get their gold back?” Wade asks, picking up a sword off the ground. “Look at the uniforms. They’re not what Henry’s men would’ve worn.”

“I don’t know, but it doesn’t look good for us,” Peter says, stepping around multiple bones as they climb the front steps.

They stir up dirt as they walk towards the large and elaborate entrance door. Wade tries a lever off to the side and it opens up slightly before stopping. Peter huffs, gesturing to Wade to help him as they force open the door the rest of the way.

“It’s empty,” Wade says, staring at the large treasury room. The shelves are bare and full of dust. Large crates lay on their sides and a few portraits are face up on the ground. In the back is the broken head from the large Avery statue.

Peter runs his fingers over one of the nearby tables, looking down at his dust covered fingers when he pulls his hand back up. “It wasn’t Harry and Gwen. This place hasn’t been touched in ages. Looks like we’re the first people since those bodies outside dropped.”

Wade tosses a coin at Peter. When he looks down at it, Avery’s sigil is staring back at him. “Treasure was definitely here,” he says. He spots an inventory log in one of the drawers of the shelves. “If the coin wasn’t proof enough, here’s a log.”

Wade walks off somewhere else to look for any other clues. Peter pockets the coin and log, and starts looking for any sort of indication on what happened. There isn’t a whole lot there to look at. A few remains of guards and more debris. It takes a good fifteen minutes before Peter looks back at the paintings again, and it suddenly clicks.

Peter grabs Wade’s attention, and points to the paintings still on the wall. All of them have the word ‘thief’ painted on them. “Pirates will be pirates.”

Wade’s face morphs into one of understanding as he looks around the room. “The treasure was already gone by the time the colonists came.”

“Because these guys took it all for themselves,” Peter finishes. “Only question now is: where did they move it?”

“I think I know.”

Peter turns towards Wade and finds him looking up at the ceiling. He follows the other man’s gaze and sees a map of Libertalia on the ceiling. Not too far away is a town called New Devon, with twelve large mansions with each of the founders’ sigils labeling them.

“There’s the treasury,” Wade points out, then moves his hand towards the mansions. “And there’s where they lived. They likely took it there to hide with the rest of their riches.”

“Wasn’t Avery from Devon, England?” Peter asks, looking back down at Wade.

“He sure was, pumpkin pie.” Wade grins. “Probably why they went with the name. As if the man wasn’t egotistical enough…”

Peter snorts. “C’mon, let’s climb up to the top of the watchtower so we can see how far away New Devon is.”

“After you, m’lady.”

~*~

With Libertalia stretched out in front of them, Peter is still in disbelief that they’re here. Most of it is overgrown by trees and some buildings fell victim to landslides, but it’s gorgeous all the same. Peter is completely enraptured by it all, just standing at the top of the tower and trying to take it all in while he can.

A light touch to his lower back brings Peter back to the present. He’d been so lost in thought that he had forgotten the reason for them even being there. Wade has a soft look on his face, bordering on fond. It’s making Peter’s heart do funny things.

“I’m really glad I’m doing this with you,” Peter admits softly. “I mean… it’s been one mess after another, and we have Shoreline on our asses, but... I’m really happy.”

“Messes have always been our thing, huh?” Wade jokes, but the mirth isn’t as strong as it usually is with him. His eyes are intensely fixed on Peter, and it’s making him feel hot under the collar.

Peter isn’t fully sure of what he’s doing as he reaches for Wade’s hand, but he sticks with it anyway. He gently squeezes it, hoping to convey all his feelings in the simple gesture. He’s never been that good with emotions, but based on the way Wade tugs his hand back when he goes to pull away, the message was received.

“We should really get going,” Peter says softly, blushing lightly as Wade’s thumb rubs circles into his palm. Despite his words, Peter isn’t pulling his hand out of Wade’s.

Wade opens his mouth, likely to say something snarky in response, but he’s cut off when a loud explosion sounds from under them.

The building starts to shake and Peter pulls his hand out of Wade’s to point out the mercs. “RPGs! Wade, run!”

Wade nearly throws himself off the side of the tower in his escape. Peter follows quickly as they start their descent. Peter’s hands burn from the quick climbing not looking for vines as they don’t have the time to spare. The tower starts falling even more as another explosion sounds. It’s tilting towards the neighboring building and Peter quickly uses his rope to hook onto a branch on the other side. They’re on the same side as Shoreline now, but Peter hopes they won’t try blowing up a building their own men are in.

Another explosion nearly sends Peter out the side of a blown out portion of the wall. Wade quickly grabs him, looking more scared than he’s ever been before he’s pushing Peter to run in front of him.

It seems moot because a grenade is thrown their way and Peter starts sliding down anyway. Luckily for him, he goes crashing through the wall of the next building over.

“I’m going to feel this in the morning,” Peter groans out, laying there for a minute before rolling up onto his hands and knees. He sees feet in front of him and looks up to see Gwen staring angrily down at him. “Hey, Gwen! Fancy seeing you here. Didn’t think you were much of a history buff to be honest.”

Gwen kicks him in the side and pins him down with her foot on his chest and a gun pointed to his face.

“Mango!” Peter shouts out, putting his hands up.

Gwen makes a face. “What?”

“It’s my safe word,” Peter cracks with a grin. He groans again as she pushes her foot down harder. “Red?”

“Shut up,” Gwen growls out. “You and your boy toy are obnoxious, but clever. You’re proving to be the more capable treasure hunters. Quite a shame we’re not on the same side.”

“Hey, there’s still time. Give me some time and I’ll even get Tony to like you, and he doesn’t like anybody.”

Gwen removes her foot off of his chest, and it gives Peter a bit of hope. He scrambles up and finds Gwen examining him. “The last time Osborn tried taking on another partner, it didn’t end well. Forgive me for not wanting to go through that again.”

Peter wipes his hands on his jeans, trying and failing to look for a way out. “Well, uh. I’ll see myself out then.”

“Do you _really_ think I’m going to just let you walk away?” Gwen asks, raising her gun to Peter again.

Wade suddenly jumps down from the floor above to land next to Peter, startling both of them. “That’d be the wise thing to do, princess.”

Gwen’s eyes narrow and she takes a shot at Peter. He barely dodges it, his arm getting nicked in the process. He hisses and turns to kick out Gwen’s legs from under her.

Wade is faster than him, though, and manages to twist Gwen’s arm enough so she drops the gun. The gun falls through a hole in the floor to the cliff below. Wade gets kicked in the stomach and his nose broken by Gwen’s knee. After he’s hit, she turns and kicks Peter into the wall behind him.

They both take a beating as they fight her. Gwen is much better at fighting than Peter is, and even Wade is struggling to hold his own. He may be bigger and stronger than Gwen, but she’s nimble and can easily wiggle her way out and throw a punch back at him.

Peter gets shoved back into the wall again, but this time it breaks under him and he and Gwen go falling. They both land hard on the hard rock of the cliff. Peter gets the wind knocked out of him and he’s trying to wheeze in a breath when he spots the gun not far away from him. He tries reaching for it, but a familiar boot steps into his line of sight and he grabs it.

“I wouldn’t move if I were you,” Wade says, pointing the gun at Gwen, who glares at him as she stands up slowly.

Peter scrambles up and stands next to Wade, breathing still rough as he finally catches his breath. “Shit.”

There are footsteps running towards them and Wade quickly grabs Gwen, putting the gun to her temple. “Not another step!” he yells towards the small group of Shoreline mercs that run in, guns pointed right at them.

“Wade, what the hell?” Peter exclaims, eyes wide. “What are you doing?”

“Well, isn’t this a sight?” Harry says, strolling in calmly. “Hello, Peter. Wade.”

“Put your guns down! All of you!” Wade demands. Peter’s eyes go wide at hearing him. He sounds slightly deranged, and Peter can’t help but take a slight step back.

Gwen looks more annoyed than anything. She isn’t fighting against the hold like Peter thought she would. She could easily break out of it if she wants to. And Harry looks… calm, which is even weirder since Wade has a gun pointed at his partner’s head.

“No,” Harry says, staring Wade down. “You wouldn’t do that in front of an audience, would you?”

Wade’s eyes flicker towards Peter before settling once more on Harry. “Do you want to bet her life on it?”

“Harry, this guy’s on edge,” Gwen says, starting to look pissed now.

“Wade!” Peter shouts. “Drop the gun. You have no reason to kill her. You shouldn’t kill someone in cold blood.”

Harry snorts from nearby, catching Peter’s attention. Harry looks surprised for a minute before it melts into a wicked smirk. “You didn’t tell him?” he asks Wade. “Wade does kill in cold blood. In fact, he gets _paid_ for it. Who do you think worked for me before I hired Shoreline?”

Peter swallows thickly and looks at Wade. He’s long since accepted that he’s not on the right side of moral, but he’s always been firm in drawing the line at straight up murder. Wade knows this. _He knows this._

Wade’s anger loses its edge enough that Gwen can get out. She elbows him in the gut and grabs the gun from him. She glares at Harry as she passes.

“I never stopped looking, Peter, but when I heard about Wade’s new set of skills, I had to get my hands on the action,” Harry continues. “I hired him about two years ago. His mercenary work combined with his knowledge on Avery, well… I couldn’t pass it up. But then the idiot decides to disappear on me. On the premise that he had ‘a quick errand to run’. Six months later, I’m forced to hire Shoreline. Worked in my favor, anyway. Shoreline’s a lot more… competent.”

“You’ve been working for Harry?” Peter asks, looking at Wade, hurt. “How… how long?”

“Two years,” Harry answers before Wade has the chance. Gwen is still standing behind him, looking ready to just kill them and be done with it.

Peter furrows his eyebrows, taking a step back. “Tw-- _two years_? Was the story about the cancer even true?”

“Yes!” Wade insists. “I wouldn’t lie about that.”

“I’ll admit, I was surprised when I came across Wade when looking for someone to hire,” Harry says, grinning like he just won the lottery. “Never thought Wade would be the type to willingly throw himself at people and kill them knowing his history with you. But after Weapon X…”

“Don’t,” Wade warns, voice flat. It sends a shiver up Peter’s spine. “Don’t you dare.”

“No, I want to hear this,” Peter says, crossing his arms over his chest. “Obviously I won’t hear it from you.”

Harry chuckles. “Wade is Deadpool, Peter. He’s immortal, and the best mercenary on the market.”

Peter’s heart falls. He’s written articles on Deadpool before about how dangerous to the public he is. Most of the information he gathered was from sources who had direct contact with the mercenary. They all sited him as insane and not to be trusted; a loose mouth and quick trigger finger.

“I can’t believe you,” Peter says, looking at Wade. “I _trusted you_. All you’ve done since you came back was lie to me!”

“Pete--”

“Don’t!” Peter puts his hands up, eyes tearing up a little. There are so many emotions going through him, but the one thing he knows is that he feels… heartbroken. _Betrayed_.

“Hurry this up,” Gwen says to Harry. “I’m done with the games. One way or another, I want this to end.”

Harry looks irritated, but doesn’t try to argue with her. “Right, well. As entertaining as this has been, the lady makes a point.” He pulls a gun out of his holster. “It’s a shame I can’t kill both of you. Weapon X made sure of that.”

Peter’s eyes widen as Harry points the gun at him. With the cliff edge behind him, Peter has nowhere to run. He glances at Wade again, putting his hands up as he faces the gun.

“Goodbye, Peter. As nice as it was meeting up with you again, you’ve been a thorn in our sides.” With that, Harry pulls the trigger.

Suddenly, Wade is in front of him , taking a bullet to the shoulder. Wade stumbles backwards, bumping into Peter. His heel slips and Peter loses his footing, sending him tumbling back over the edge.

“ _Peter_!” Wade screams.

Everything goes black after that.

**~*~**

“He _did_ go to Madagascar!”

“Nobody knows that!”

“I do!”

Peter turns from where he’s reading the museum plaque to see where the argument is coming from. The thirteen-year-old spots two teenagers arguing. The taller one is blond and glaring angrily at the redhead he’s talking to.

“After he robbed the Grand Mughal, he took his treasure to Madagascar. He founded Libertalia,” the blond insists. “He died there.”

“Actually, I think they found evidence he died broke back in England,” Peter pipes up. He blushes when the teens look at him. “I mean historians don’t know his fate for sure, but I read that somewhere.”

The blond grins and the redhead just huffs. “But you can’t deny Libertalia would be much more interesting, right?” the blond asks.

“This is dumb. What do pirates have to do with our lessons anyway?” the redhead complains before stomping off towards his friends.

“At least I’m with someone who’s actually interested in talking about pirates,” the blond says, bouncing on his toes. “I’m Wade. Wanna walk through the rest of the exhibit together? Walking with you will be a lot more fun!”

“Sure,” Peter replies, smiling. “I’m Peter.”

“Great!” Wade beams. “Listen, I know we’re technically supposed to stay with our school groups, but everyone here is such a _dud._ Nobody seems to have any interest in pirates. Like, they stole from rich people constantly and got to go wherever the hell they wanted. What’s not to love about that?”

“They did have various governments after them, though,” Peter says softly. “I’m not sure that would have been very fun. They could go wherever they wanted, but they had to watch over their shoulder a lot. I can’t imagine that being very nice.”

“Oh no, definitely not.” Wade grins. “But it’s still cool to think about, right? Getting to do whatever you want and not care about the repercussions.”

“I’d miss my aunt,” Peter admits quietly. “She’s the only family I have left, even though she is pretty sick…”

Wade went quiet for a moment before wrapping an arm around Peter’s shoulders. “C’mon, Petey, let’s have some fun while we’re here, yeah?”

Peter nods, easily following along. Despite not knowing the teen for very long, Wade’s smile and energy is infectious. Peter can’t help himself but be caught up in his wake.

By the end of the day, Peter isn’t sure he’s ever grinned or laughed as much as he did with Wade. He’s not sure they did as much learning as they did goofing off, but Peter feels better either way. They made sure to exchange numbers before climbing on their respective buses and heading back to school.


	5. the thieves of libertalia

There are soft hands on his forehead, followed by the gentle dabbing of cloth. Peter groans quietly and the touches stop. A hand gently cups his face as he slowly comes to. When he opens his eyes, Peter finds MJ hovering over him. Her figure is blurry for a moment before he fully comes to and can see her clearly.

“MJ?” Peter asks, trying to sit up and groaning. He gives her a small smile as she helps him up. “What are you doing here?”

“Tony called me,” MJ explains. Her voice is soft and Peter appreciates it. His head is killing him. He reaches up and touches his forehead, wincing when he finds a cut there. “Shit. Did I hit my head?”

“Obviously,” MJ remarks, chuckling a little. She gently dabs at his wound again. “Anyway, Tony told me he had no way to reach you and had no idea where you two went off to. He asked me to help find you.”

“How did you even find me?” Peter asks.

“Easy. Just followed the gunfire.” MJ smirks. “You’re lucky you didn’t lose a limb or anything. It would have made getting you out of here a pain in the ass.” She pulls out a radio and starts talking into it. “Hey, Tony, I’ve found him.”

_ “How is he?”  _ Tony asks. Peter feels an utter sense of relief at hearing his voice.

“Banged up, but alive. We still need to rescue the other idiot.”

_ “What the hell happened?” _

MJ sighs. “I’ll let Peter explain it to you.”

There’s a look on her face that tells Peter that she already knows what he’s going to tell Tony. He sighs softly and accepts the radio. “Hey, Tony.”

_ “Hey, kiddo. What happened to Wade?” _

Peter sighs softly. “He’s with Harry. They’re heading to the north side of the island.”

_ “Shit.” _

“See if you can find a place to land so we can leave quickly,” Peter says, ignoring the raised eyebrow from MJ.

_ “What the hell happened to make you change your mind?”  _ Tony asks.

“Wade is... Deadpool.” Peter almost chokes on the admission. “He was working for Harry for the past two years. I’m not exactly excited for seeing this out after that. You know me, Tony. I don’t like mercenaries.”

_ “Wish I could say ‘I told you so’, but I feel that wouldn’t be appropriate,”  _ Tony jokes.  _ “I’m sorry to hear that. I’ve heard the stories about Deadpool.” _

“Thanks,” Peter drawls sarcastically, grinning as Tony just laughs. “I’ll see you there, old man.”

_ “Brat. Stay safe down there, you two.” _

Peter gives the radio back to MJ before she helps him up. His head is still ringing a bit, but he’s managed worse. There’s a look on MJ’s face that causes him to sigh. “Alright, what is it?”

“I did some digging after you left,” MJ admits. “I was curious as to why Wade just disappeared. I wanted to see if there was any other reason, you know.”

“Did you find anything?” Peter asks, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Well,” MJ says, sighing softly. “Working for Shoreline is the first job he’s taken in at least three years. After seeing your article on Deadpool on the front page of the Bugle, he actually stopped killing. Well, for money anyway. There really isn’t much on him that isn’t official jobs.” She gives him a small smile. “You have every right to be upset, don’t get me wrong, but… I just wanted to let you know that.”

“Thank you,” Peter says softly, biting his bottom lip afterwards. “C’mon, let’s get going. They’re just getting further and further away the more we chatter on.”

“And your ass was passed out,” MJ says with a smirk. “Oh, before I forget.” She hands him a gun. “You didn’t have any on you when I got to you. Not sure what happened, but I figure you need this more than I do. I hate to admit it, but you’re a better shot than I am.”

“It took you five years to admit that,” Peter says, taking the gun from her. “God, you’re an ass.”

“An ass that got us a ride,” MJ replies. “I swiped a Jeep from Shoreline. They have so many, I’m sure they won’t miss one. It’s parked not far away, just at the top of the hill.”

“Sweet. Hopefully they don’t notice it sitting there on the top of the hill,” Peter replies. “For all to see.”

“Who’s the ass now?” MJ asks with a laugh, lightly punching his shoulder. “By the way, Tony and I saw Libertalia from up in the air. Looks awesome, but it would’ve been better up close.”

“It was! Wish I didn’t lose my camera. Writing an article on all this would be cool,” Peter gushes. “I don’t know if Jameson would publish it, but I’m sure someone out there would be willing to lend an ear.”

“Oh yeah, completely. It’d be the story of a lifetime,” MJ agrees. She pauses when they reach the bottom of the hill. “Well, shit. They weren’t here before.”

Peter stares up at where the Jeep is still sitting, surrounded by Shoreline mercs. There are a couple snipers set up in a building that’s still half-standing. He shares a nervous look with MJ before they start making their way closer. They decide to climb the hill carefully and make their way over to the side with the cliff in order to keep out of sight from Shoreline. Peter suddenly gestures for MJ to stop and stay quiet, pointing above him where two mercs are standing watch.

“You think she’s with Parker?” one asks.

“Gotta be,” the other answers. “Some men say they heard a prop plane, too.”

“Shit. Sounds like a party.”

“Stay alert, gentlemen!” A third shouts from further away.

Peter glances at MJ again, and they seem to come to the same conclusion. When they’re sure they have the right window of opportunity, they both reach up and grab the front of a mercenary’s shirt and pull them off the side of the cliff.

“Let’s keep doing this quietly, then, yeah?”

MJ huffs softly, but she’s grinning as she nods in agreement. Peter knows she’s missed this life just as much as he has. Even though it wasn’t something she signed up for when she asked to join him in finding the grave of Sir Francis Drake, she’s really grown into it. Peter’s proud of her.

They sneak around the cliff face until they’re near the car. Peter climbs up first and waves MJ after him once it’s safe. The two of them hurry over to the Jeep and MJ quickly hands over the keys to him. Despite the place being full of mercenaries, they sneak into the Jeep. The mercenaries are alerted when Peter starts the car.

“Shoot whoever you can!” Peter shouts, flooring the Jeep out of there as fast as they can.

Bullets hit the car as Peter drives away. It lasts for a while before it finally stops and it feels like they can breathe a sigh of relief. MJ looks a little frazzled, but not injured.

“So, why does Harry want this treasure so badly?” MJ asks, tucking the gun away. “He’s already rich; what’s in it for him?”

“He wants to make a name for himself,” Peter answers. “Outside of his father’s shadow, I mean.”

MJ scoffs. “So, killing everyone in his way for a treasure that he doesn’t even deserve is the way to do it? Always knew he was a prick.”

Peter snorts. “That’s a bit of an understatement.”

“Harry and Shoreline make a good match, at least. He needs the muscle and they need the money.”

“I heard about that,” Peter says. “Shoreline and the civil war.”

“Yeah. Gwen is probably hoping that finding this treasure will put her back on the map.” MJ drums her fingers on the edge of the open window. “Why did Wade seek you out? Especially after two years?”

“I think he wanted to see what Harry had,” Peter answers, chewing on his bottom lip afterwards. “But I don’t know... With what I know of Wade, he was… probably ashamed of becoming someone he knows I don’t like. It must have taken him a lot to work up the nerve to find me.”

MJ hums softly before turning to him again. “So, all these elaborate tests and architecture… It couldn’t have come cheap. Do you think there’s any treasure left?”

“We were wondering that ourselves, actually. Considering all the trouble we’ve been through, I really hope there’s something.”

_ “You two doing okay so far?” _

MJ pulls the radio out, smiling a little at Tony’s worry. “We’re fine,  _ Dad. _ Some Shoreline found our Jeep and we’re having a bit of a drive, but nothing we can’t handle.”

Tony grumbles something under his breath before he speaks again.  _ “Alright, well, keep in touch, will you? I’m not the ‘no news is good news’ type.” _

“We’ll try. See you later, Tony.”

Peter sits up a little straighter when he spots a stone bridge just ahead of them. It looks a bit worse for the wear, but it seems sturdy enough to cross. On the other side, Peter can see a hint of more architecture through the thick of the trees. It’s too far to see exactly what it is, but it makes Peter excited that they’re on the right path.

“Honey, we’re home,” Peter jokes, grinning over at MJ, who in turn rolls her eyes.

Despite looking sturdy, the bridge creaks dangerously under them. MJ peers over the side of the Jeep, looking worried. “Are you sure this will kee--”

All of a sudden, with a loud crack, the bridge crumbles under them. They’re only halfway across and it throws them, Jeep and all, into the river below. The current is strong, and it beats around the car, throwing them into the boulders sticking out of the water.

“Turn us around. We’re heading for the falls!” MJ shouts, looking slightly pale.

“I can’t! The current’s too strong!” Peter shouts back, trying to steer the Jeep towards the edge of the river. The river easily overpowers them as it throws the vehicle wherever it wants.

“There! We can climb those rocks!” MJ says, pointing to a small outcropping leading further onto dry land.

“Go! Go!” Peter yells, managing to get them closer to the rocks and letting MJ climb up first. He starts to get up to follow her, but the current makes the Jeep shake violently under him and he falls back into the seat. He groans in pain before sitting up.

“Peter!” MJ shouts, running along the edge of the river. “Peter, the waterfall!”

“Fuck!” Peter scrambles for his grapple and rope, trying desperately to find something to hook it to. His heart is racing in his chest, desperation clawing through him as he looks for a way out of the car.

Finally, he spots a tall tree at the edge of the cliff, sticking out just far enough over the waterfall for him to be able to hook onto. He clings onto the hope of getting out as he swings the grapple towards the tree as hard as he can. Peter nearly laughs in relief as it catches and he quickly jumps out of the Jeep, climbing the rope to escape the rushing water.

“Pete, the tree!” MJ yells out, pointing towards the tree he’s hooked onto as it starts tilting dangerously, roots lifting out of the dirt.

“Come  _ on _ ,” Peter complains, swinging his body forward and getting a foot onto a stable rock. MJ reaches out to grab his arm and help him. The tree falls moments later, tumbling down to land at the bottom of the waterfall alongside their now smoking vehicle.

“So much for the car,” MJ comments, looking over the side. Peter joins her and lets out a nervous chuckle, relieved they aren’t still in it.

“C’mon, let’s get going,” Peter says, putting a hand on her shoulder and leading her away from the edge.

They got swept quite far down river from the bridge and they have to climb back through the foliage to get to where they were going. Peter steps through first and pauses in pure shock when faced with how many gibbets stand in front of a tall gate, each of them filled with a skeleton.

“I guess that’s one way to crush a rebellion,” Peter comments, eyes wide as he takes it all in. There has to be anywhere from thirty to forty standing alone. A few have fallen, and Peter and MJ have to step over the fallen bodies of long deceased men to go any further.

“I wonder if this was always the plan,” MJ says, picking up a sword from the ground. It was covered in rust, and Peter is expecting it to just fall apart like Wade’s did.

“To slaughter all the colonists?” Peter asks in disbelief. 

“No… To lure them here in hopes of a utopia only to rob them of everything they had.” MJ spots a sign on one of the gibbets. “Traitor? Okay, so… Maybe making an example of the rebels instead? What the hell happened here? Why so many deaths?”

They walk towards the door in the gate and Peter tries it. It doesn’t budge.

“Looks like we’re going over,” Peter sighs in annoyance.

They use the gibbets to climb up towards the top of the gate. Peter helps MJ up the rest of the way and they stay crouched on it, taking in the sight of what lay before them.

New Devon has been completely flooded; the streets filled with a high level of water. They’ll have to swim their way through if they want to get to Avery’s house at the top of the hill where it remains suspiciously safe despite its crumbling state of disrepair. Everything in the little square of founders’ houses are elaborate and even more ostentatious than the building Peter and Wade had seen earlier in the financial district of Libertalia.

Peter takes a moment to look at all the houses, overwhelmed with awe at the sight of them. They’re falling apart, barely standing, and so flooded that there’s no saving them… But this is history in front of him, and he can’t help but appreciate it.

MJ lightly nudges Peter’s side. “It’s very obvious that you’ve missed this,” she says, lightly teasing him. She’s smiling at him, and it’s a type of smile that’s rare to see on her face. He can count on one hand the amount of times he’s seen it, and he’s sure the first time he did was when he asked her out.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Peter says, looking back out on the founders’ houses. “I’m perfectly content being boring.”

MJ’s smile morphs into something more familiar: an unimpressed stare. Peter chooses to ignore it.

She sighs softly and pulls out a pair of binoculars. She looks around the small square, trying to figure anything out. “Looks like a dam of some sort got blown. The place is completely flooded.”

“ _ I _ could have told you that,” Peter replies. “Looks like Avery’s house is the only one that’s still intact.

“Shit,” MJ curses, suddenly handing the binoculars to Peter. “The front door.”

Peter looks through and his breath hitches slightly when he sees Harry, Gwen, and Wade. “They’ve still got him. They can’t kill him, so they’re dragging him along.” He sighs and looks over at MJ. “Let’s go get the big blundering idiot.”

MJ smirks and puts away her binoculars. She stands and looks down at the water below her. “How do we get down?”

“There’s only one way,” Peter says, raising an eyebrow as he stands up next to her. “It’s easy. We jump.”

“I was afraid of that.” She sighs and gestures at him. “Lead the way.”

Peter smirks at MJ before jumping off the wall into the water below. He hears a splash nearby as he resurfaces, pushing his hair out of his eyes. MJ complains about getting drenched on every treasure hunt they go on, but otherwise doesn’t complain much, which is good.

The house closest to where they landed belongs to Joseph Farrell’s. His sigil is hanging on the wall by the single nail left in one of its corners. A harsh breeze could easily knock it down. Peter is surprised it hasn’t already, if he’s being honest. 

They have to swim through the parlour room and half of the bedroom before they’re able to climb out the other side. A tree must have fallen at some point over the years because they’re able to use it to get into the next house over. The sigil has already fallen, so they can only guess who it belonged to.

The walls look moldy and crumbly from all the water damage and the years of being exposed to the elements. Peter wants to make a joke about a tree growing through one of the bedrooms, but only refrains due to not wanting to be glared at by MJ. Wade would giggle along with him if he were here.

“Careful!” Peter whispers to MJ, grabbing her arm and stopping her from walking right out into the open. “Shoreline.”

The two of them hide and Peter peeks around the brick wall in front of the last mansion before Avery’s, spotting only a handful of mercs. He holds up a hand to signal that there are only five mercs before they creep forward. They use half-crumbled walls and fallen trees as cover, trying to sneak by without being seen. The last thing they need is Harry knowing that Peter is alive and MJ is there too. Though, he has no doubt both Gwen and Harry already know that there are more people on the island coming after the treasure.

“All this for one man?” a merc asks, making Peter freeze a little before continuing forward.

“After everything, you’re really asking that?” another asks with a snort. “The ugly bastard is still leading them on a wild goose chase. I’m surprised they haven’t killed him yet.”

“They can’t, you idiot. He’s immortal.”

Peter sneaks through an open window and keeps an eye out while MJ slips in behind him. Peter is finally able to breathe a sigh of relief as they get further away from the mercenaries.

“We’re in Tew’s house now,” Peter murmurs, running his hand over the sigil of an arm holding a pirate sword sitting neatly on the wall. “I think he was Avery’s right hand man based on a couple letters I found in Libertalia. Plus, his house is right next to Avery’s and the second biggest.”

“Speaking of letters,” MJ says, holding up a faded letter she found on a small side table in the hallway. “This was to all the Founders, Pete. Listen to this:  _ ‘On behalf of Lord Avery, I invite you to my manor at sundown tomorrow. The time has come to abandon our animosities… and reunite under the banner of God… and liberty.’  _ Signed Thomas Tew.”

Peter peeks at the letter over her shoulder and accepts it when she hands it to him. “It’s even signed with his sigil. This is an official letter… sent to every pirate captain.”

He looks at MJ excitedly, tucking the letter away and searching for a sitting room of some kind. Peter pauses when he passes the dining room, spotting a flash of red through a crack of an opened door. Pushing it open, Peter’s breath catches in his throat when he’s met with the sight of ten skeletons sitting around the table.

“Holy shit. MJ…  _ holy shit. _ ” Peter steps closer, laughing in disbelief. “Are you seeing this?”

“Hard not to,” MJ replies, looking in awe as well as her eyes scan over the table. “Looks like they died mid-meal.”

“Wait. There’s only ten of them,” Peter says, eyebrows furrowing.

MJ picks up a small piece of wood similar to a coaster. She flips it over and reveals the skull of Avery’s sigil. “Seems like our hosts didn’t stick around.”

“Animosities… They were fighting over the treasure,” Peter says in sudden realisation. “Wade and I found the treasury and it was empty. The paintings of these captains all had ‘thief’ on it.”

“They stole it for themselves,” MJ realises.

“They must have been fighting with each other,” Peter says, pulling out the letter again. “Things got messy, so they invited each of the others up here to ‘abandon animosities’.” He picks up a glass and pretends to make a toast. “Avery makes an announcement. For God and Liberty! Ahoy, mateys, and all that, and they all take a swig.” He points at Avery and Tew’s sigil coasters. “Except for these two. And just like that, all the treasure of Libertalia becomes the sole possession of these two men.” Peter shakes his head. “These are some of history’s greatest pirates, and they all perished in an instant. At this very table.”

“This is insane,” MJ breathes out, eyes wide. “The selfishness of two men killed… fuck,  _ hundreds  _ of people. These great pirate captains are left to rot on an abandoned island and the rest of it is flooded. They’re lost to time.”

Peter lets out a shaky sigh, pocketing the letter once more. “So, our hosts aren’t here. I’m guessing… Avery’s mansion?”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

There are Shoreline trucks sitting in front of Avery’s mansion, which isn’t much of a surprise. There are also cannons sitting out front, which must’ve been used when Avery was still living in the home. They’re overgrown and rusty, unlikely to be used again.

Shoreline appears to have barricaded the front door, making it impossible to head inside the easy way. “Why am I not surprised,” Peter grumbles, looking around for a way in. “Hey, look. There’s an open window on the second floor that we can climb into.”

Peter leads the way, pointing out easy grips and holds for her. She’s not as skilled a climber as Peter is, but she can definitely hold her own and move quickly when needed. It’ll have to do.

The setup in the house is weird in his eyes. The second floor is nothing but a hallway-like balcony looking out over the grand staircase and the first floor. Gaudy reds and golds cover the stairs and what parts of the railing are standing. White marble floors and walls stare at them, framed with more red and gold. Elaborate gold cutlasses are detailed against the white of tall, thick doors. 

They’re difficult to push open when Peter or MJ try to take a peek into any of the rooms they snake past. A huge chandelier hangs from the ceiling, still in mostly good shape and sparkling brightly as the sun shines in through cracks in the ceiling and the parts of the windows that haven’t been covered in vines, or dust and dirt.

“They left mud on the floor!” Peter complains, glaring down at the numerous muddy footprints on the first floor and staircase. “These mercenaries have absolutely  _ no  _ respect for history.”

“Peter, calm down,” MJ says with a laugh. “It’s not like you have the best record with historics, or things in general. Didn’t you completely derail a train in the Himalayas?”

“I refuse to talk about that,” Peter says, face going dark. “You almost died that trip.”

MJ smiles softly and bumps his shoulder lightly. “And you banged Felicia how many times?”

Peter’s face heats up as he turns on his heel and starts following the footprints. It leads to a partially blocked door, and Peter huffs at yet another blocked entrance.

“Why would they even bother barricading their path?” He asks, trying to peek through. “Unless…”

“They found something,” MJ finishes. “Let’s get this open.”

The two of them start ramming their shoulders into the door, trying to clear whatever blockage there is. They’re nearly through when, without warning, bullets pepper the wall next to them.

“Get down!” Peter yells, hiding behind a nearby pillar. It crumbles next to his head where the bullets hit the marble. “Where the hell were they even hiding?”

He peeks around the corner and yelps when the shots take chunks out of the pillar. He can hear MJ snickering from nearby, and he glares at her before peeking out again to take aim of his own at a couple nearby mercenaries.

“I’m really tired of seeing these guys, MJ,” Peter calls to her, irritated. They’re so close. “Harry really wants us out of the picture. He’s using every resource he has to take us out.”

“No wonder. You seem to be as immortal as Wade, at this point,” MJ remarks. It hits a nerve in Peter and his shot catches a merc a bit too hard in the face, but at least it gets the guy out of his hair.

Ducking out from behind the pillar, Peter dodges a punch thrown his way before kicking the merc’s legs out from under him and delivering a quick kill shot of his own. He prefers killing over a distance because watching the life drain out of someone’s eyes is one of the more uncomfortable things about this line of work. He honestly has no idea how Wade could be a mercenary when he has to do that constantly. Peter understands killing when people are gunning for his life, but not out of cold blood.

There’s a guy with heavy armor that has Peter sweating a little in worry. Bullets ricochet from the armor and all their effort only gets a few grunts of pain. It looks like he won’t be going down without a fight. Peter spots a grenade from a fallen Shoreline soldier and quickly grabs it as he ducks behind another pillar. He peeks around it, pulls the pin, and flings the grenade in the direction of the heavily armored goon. He gestures for MJ to get down just in time for the grenade to go off.

After it explodes, the room is filled with a ringing kind of quiet. Peter lets out a shaky breath and pushes the hair out of his face as he peeks out to see if there’s anymore.

“I think that was the last one,” MJ says, breaking the silence. She stands up and tucks a loose piece of hair behind her ear. “I don’t doubt that won’t be the last of them we’ll see.”

Peter laughs a little and climbs back over to the blocked door. “Let’s try this again, shall we?”

MJ grunts as she shoves her shoulder into the door. The look of determination would be cute if she also didn’t look so irritated. Peter throws his whole body into the door  _ hard _ . It gives suddenly and he goes stumbling through. He catches himself on a couch across from the door, disturbing a skeleton that was still sitting there.

“Oh, hello there. Didn’t mean to bump into you,” Peter says, standing up and dusting his hands off. He spots a letter next to the skeleton and picks it up. “It’s a letter signed by Avery.”

“Really? What’s it say?”

“ _ My loyal subjects… As the sun sets on our glorious paradise, we must endeavor to preserve its riches… The traitorous Tew knows our secrets, so we must act quickly. Destroy the dam, cleanse New Devon, and move my treasure through the passage to my ship. _ ”

“Tew and Avery turned on each other,” MJ realises. “Not that I’m surprised.”

Peter sighs and tucks the letter away. “At least we know where the treasure went-- Avery took it all.”

“Then let’s look for his passage, and we’ll find his ship. And hopefully Wade,” MJ says, patting his arm as she turns to follow the muddy footprints leaving the room.

They lead them to a door where the tracks disappear once they open the door. It’s a large office with a spiral staircase leading up to a second story library full of rotting books and old treasures that overlooks the rest of the room.

“Where did they go?” MJ asks, staring down at the footprints. It's like they just… disappeared.

“Pirate ghosts?” Peter suggests with a grin, earning a glare from MJ.

They search through the office for any sort of clue to a hidden passageway or sign of where the Shoreline mercenaries vanished to. Peter is starting to get frustrated with the lack of progress, but he pushes through anyway. As mad as he is with Wade, he’s still scared on his behalf, especially knowing how irritated Harry is with him, and has him  _ hostage _ . He wouldn’t put it past Harry to try and threaten Wade to keep him in line.

“Pete, look,” MJ speaks up, standing up with something in her hands. “It’s a lighter.”

Peter walks over, accepting it from MJ. “It’s Wade’s,” he says, running his thumb over the small  _ W.W.  _ engraved into the side. “He was using it in the catacombs in Scotland.”

“Why would he leave it here, though?” MJ asks.

“He left it for us to follow,” Peter realises. “He wants us to know this spot is important. This must be the entrance to the passageway.”

MJ’s eyes widen, and she turns to quickly search around for anything to click or hit, hoping to reveal anything. It’s as she’s passing her hand over an antique globe when something happens. The floor around the desk slowly starts sinking away to reveal a staircase that extends down into the darkness below.

“How’d you do that?” Peter asks, glancing over at MJ.

“There’s a bloody fingerprint right here where Libertalia should be. I just pushed it,” MJ answers with a shrug. “They figured it out for us.”

Peter takes the lead, pulling out his flashlight and shining it around them as they slowly make their way down. The staircase leads to the start of a cave, fresh footprints heading further in.

“Footprints start back up again,” Peter points out.

“That’s a lot of footprints, Pete. Let’s be careful going through here, yeah?”

“The letter said they took the treasure through this passage. Moving it to his ship,” Peter says, glancing back every so often to make sure MJ is behind him.

“Do you think it’s even still on the island? Who’s to say Avery didn’t leave with it? There are myths he was back in England. Maybe they’re true.” MJ eyes a fallen Shoreline merc on the floor. “Uh… We didn’t do that, did we?”

Before Peter can answer, a loud explosion rocks the cave from somewhere in front of them. They share a panicked expression and stand closer together.

“Avery made a panic cave by the sounds of it,” MJ comments. “That sounded pretty far away. This cave must go pretty deep.”

“It also doesn’t look very stable.” Peter shines his light over the support beams. “Those explosions definitely aren’t helping any. We better move through here as quickly as possible to avoid anything.”

Peter rushes forward to follow the footprints before they’re blocked by cave debris, stopping only when MJ points out another way through. They walk for a bit before Peter’s flashlight sputters out and leaves them in darkness.

“Shit. Seriously?” He bangs on the bottom of the flashlight until it flickers on again. It stays on momentarily before turning back off.

“Did you bring spare batteries?” MJ asks, a hand landing lightly on Peter’s arm.

“They’re at the bottom of the ocean,” Peter replies, with his camera and everything else important for this mission.

“I won’t ask.”

“I won’t tell.”

“Wait, I have matches on me,” MJ says, removing her hand from Peter’s arm. There’s some shuffling before a small flame dances between them. She looks around quickly and spots a torch mounted on the wall. She lights it up and searches around for another to light and give to Peter.

“You know, if we could make it work between us, this would be incredibly romantic,” Peter jokes, moving forward once more.

“If you didn’t have a massive boner for Wade, sure,” MJ replies easily.

Peter nearly trips over his own feet. “ _ Excuse me?! _ ” He squawks out. MJ smirks at him.

“I mean, there’s obviously something there,” MJ says, urging Peter to keep walking. “And you’re never one to do things halfway. You mentioned before that you had a crush on Wade when you guys were younger. Now he’s back in your life. That’s surely stirred something back up?”

Peter shakes his head. “No, definitely not. Besides, he  _ lied  _ to me.”

“You guys just need to sit down and talk it out,” MJ tells him flatly, sighing softly. “Get your head out of your ass for once, Parker. You two would be good for each other.”

Peter swallows back a remark as MJ looks over her shoulder at him. She gives him an encouraging smile and he doesn’t want to ruin the moment. It isn’t very often when MJ has an emotional discussion with him. He’s actually pretty sure the last one involved them breaking up.

MJ leads the way as they go further into the darkness. It’s starting to get eerie the further they go. There aren’t anymore Shoreline mercenaries, but that could easily be chalked up to the fact that they’re heading down a different path. The only thing they can see is what their torches are illuminating.

Suddenly, somewhere near MJ, something lights up. Peter’s eyes widen and he grabs her arm, yanking her back hard and covering her from the resulting explosion. MJ doesn’t even complain about the rough treatment. When they start forward again, it’s more carefully than before, heading towards the source of the explosion. There isn’t anything left from what exploded, but Peter can see a few mummies just past that have a small wick standing out in front of them.

“Exploding mummies,” Peter says, eyebrows raised high in shock. “This is a panic cave alright. Avery must have used the bodies from the fallen colonists or ‘traitors’ and filled them with explosives. The wick is lit by passing torches.” He glances back at MJ. “Ready to run?”

“No,” MJ replies, looking miffed.

Taking a deep breath, Peter starts sprinting. He can only tell that MJ is hot on his heels when he hears her cursing as the wicks light up on their way past. There’s a break from the mummies just up ahead, so Peter grabs MJ and drags her with him behind a large boulder to protect them both from the last of the blasts.

“This can’t be good to breathe in,” Peter says, coughing through the cloud of dust in the air. MJ is quiet -  _ too _ quiet - next to him. He turns to her, concerned. “You okay?”

“Pete… look where we are,” MJ says, eyes wide with fear.

Peter turns from her and stares as the dust settles around them. The small area they find themselves in is full of different skeletal hands hanging in bundles from the ceiling. There’s a small sign hanging on the far end of the wall that reads  _ ‘The hands that stole from me’ _ .

“Avery isn’t even pretending to be sane at this point,” Peter says bluntly. “How much do you want to bet he’s made more rooms with body parts hanging from the ceiling down here?”

“Considering he also made exploding mummies? I’d put money on that,” MJ answers, collecting herself. She’s been out of the game as long as Peter has, but Peter is usually the one to deal with most of the insanity of the hunts.

“Let’s just… keep going. There has to be a way out soon, right?”

MJ huffs. “It’s too late to turn back now. We might as well see this through. I’ve already taken the time off of work.”

“Do I want to know the excuse you gave Jameson for both of us getting the time off?” Peter asks, ducking around a set of hands as they head for an opening on the other side of the room.

“No, but he wasn’t happy. I left the building while his face was turning red,” MJ says with a laugh. “Betty glared at me as I passed because I left them all to deal with him.”

“Betty takes time off all the time, she can deal with it this time.” Peter laughs.

They do, in fact, pass a few more rooms with body parts hanging from the ceiling. One had jaws and another had rib cages. The jaws in particular were a bit gruesome. They were just skeletons now, but Peter has to cringe at imagining what it looked like when they were first strung up.

“My ears just popped,” MJ says, rubbing under her ear.

“Yeah, we’re definitely descending.” The floor has been slanting slightly downward for a while now.

Peter pauses when they enter a large room with the ceiling of the cave blown open, letting in light from outside. He can smell the salty sea air, indicating that they’re all the way down near the shore now. That isn’t his reason for pausing, though. Rather, it’s the room filled with hundreds of occupied gibbets that they’ve just stumbled across.

“Oh my God,” MJ breathes out. “Is this the rest of Tew’s men?”

“It has to be,” Peter replies, glancing at MJ. “You know Avery is all about making an example of his enemies.”

“He sure does like making exploding mummies, which you love to set off.”

“I don’t have a lot of experience with exploding mummies, thank you very much,” Peter says, glaring a little at MJ. “Let’s just tread carefully through here. Who knows what else Avery has in store for us.”

They walk through the rest of the room, following a long path between the many gibbets. It sends an uncomfortable shiver through Peter at the thought of Avery slaughtering all these men because of greed. All over a pointless treasure.

Though, now that Peter thinks about it, it sounds an awful lot like their own current situation.

“This has to be a trap,” MJ says, putting her hand on Peter’s arm as he reaches for the door. “Think of everything else we’ve been through to this point. Why would this door  _ not  _ be trapped?”

“We don’t really have much of a choice,” Peter says, looking back behind them. “I have a good feeling about this, though.”

MJ sighs. “Alright, do it.”

Peter pushes the door open, putting a protective arm in front of MJ as they back up slightly. “See? Nothing to worry about.”

Just as they both sigh in relief, a net snaps up around them. They’re lifted up in the air, and pressed close together with limbs overlapping as they sit there in shock.

“Well,” Peter says. “At least we didn’t get blown to bits.” An explosion sounds from behind them, and he groans. “Seriously?”

Peter wiggles for a minute before pulling out his pocket knife. MJ is pressed tightly against him, watching in fear as the explosions start getting closer. “Peter?”

“I’ve almost got it,” He grunts, arm moving as quickly as possible to cut the net.

“All those years of masterbating finally coming in handy, huh?” MJ jokes weakly.

Peter gives her a stare moments before the net snaps. They fall to the ground in a heap and scramble to their feet. “Run!”

The explosions are coming quicker now, likely due to mummies being placed closer together to prevent anyone from leaving the cave alive. At the end of the path is a small cliff and they skid over its edge. Peter grabs MJ and rolls them so she lands on top of him when they hit the ground. The last explosion echoes above them and MJ groans as she rolls off of him.

“Thanks, Captain Avery,” Peter mutters, rubbing his forehead. “Just like old times, huh?”

“My hero,” MJ drawls, looking at Peter closely. “Are you okay?”

“I’m going to feel everything that’s happened today for at least a week,” Peter replies, getting up with a bit of a groan. “C’mon, we’re right over the water.”

They head out towards the mouth of the cave where it leads to the face of a large mountain. It overlooks a large collection of broken ships sitting on the shore of the beach down below.

“It’s a ship graveyard.” Peter searches down below, attention catching when he hears a series of gunshots. He takes off towards the noise with MJ following behind. He spots Wade running from a group of Shoreline mercs. “There he is! MJ, help me look for a way down.”

“He’s surrounded.”

“Even more reason to get to him,” Peter says, running towards a ledge close enough to jump towards one of the ships’ crow’s nest.

“There’s Parker and the girl!” a merc shouts, a bullet whizzing past Peter’s head. “Get them!”

“Goddammit,” Peter grunts out, jumping towards another crow’s nest for a different vantage point. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see MJ jumping to the one he was just at.

“Sniper!” MJ yells, ducking behind cover. She pulls out a gun she swiped earlier, peeking over to see where the closest goon is. “Be careful.”

“Me? It’s you who should be careful.” Peter huffs softly, but he’s smiling, glad to have her with him.

“We’re not doing this again, Parker!”

Peter laughs to himself, shooting down a couple mercs on the boat below him. There’s no way down except for the rope and grapple he has, leaving him and MJ both vulnerable. The bullets are breaking through the old wood, slowly chipping away at their cover. Peter aims his gun and shoots at the sniper. He doesn’t get a kill shot, but he does manage to hit his shoulder. It gives Peter enough time to grab MJ and swing down to the bottom of the boat.

“You okay?” Peter asks MJ, who quickly nods.

They split up, heading towards different parts of the beach to take out more of the mercenaries. Peter ducks behind a barrel, getting a better shot and taking out the sniper as he aims at MJ. He takes out a few more before running towards the direction he saw Wade going. MJ is calling for him, racing after him.

“Wade!” Peter calls out, flinching as a bullet grazes his shoulder. “ _ Shit _ .”

He fires at random and he feels better when he hears a cry of pain. Peter starts to panic when he can’t find Wade anywhere in any of the wreckage. Wade can hold his own and can’t die, so Peter has absolutely no reason to worry.

“Wade’s on that ship,” MJ says, pointing up towards a nearby wreck. “I saw it before we jumped. He’s pinned down.”

Following MJ’s hand, Peter hurries in that direction, climbing up the rotted wooden hull of the ship towards him. They have to fight their way through, and Peter is slightly breathless by the time he reaches Wade.

“You goddamned idiot,” Peter says, pulling a shocked Wade into a hug. It doesn’t last long before he’s drawing back to hit Wade in the shoulder. “I can’t believe you! You lied to me!”

“Maybe we can have this discussion another time,” MJ says suddenly, putting a hand on Peter’s shoulder. “If you haven’t realised, we’re still surrounded.”

Wade hunches in on himself a little, looking both surprised and thoroughly chastised. “I’m sorry.”

“Once we’re out of here, you and I are having a serious talk,” Peter tells Wade, pointing a finger at him. “You’re not getting out of this, mister.”

“Watch out!” MJ screams as the boat under their feet is rocked by an explosion.

The ship was already half-sunk, so when it crumbles under them, all three of them are sent into the water beneath it. Peter surfaces with a gasp and immediately starts swimming towards a nearby boat for cover, the other two following behind him. They’re in the water now, and they can’t get a good shot from anywhere, leaving them pinned.

“I might be able to get out there and get most of them,” Wade says, treading water next to Peter.

“Don’t you dare,” Peter says firmly. “Don’t get shot just because you can heal fast.”

Wade goes quiet and doesn’t push further. Peter swims to a spot where he can try and sneak a peek, but flinches when another explosion happens, taking out the rest of the mercenaries hiding on a large, mostly intact ship sitting anchored not too far away.

“Is that Tony?” Wade asks, eyes widening. “I didn’t think--”

“You said we’d meet back up with Tony in Libertalia, didn’t you?” Peter asks. “This isn’t exactly Libertalia, but we still met back up with him.”

Wade sighs softly and they all swim towards shore where Tony’s dropping an RPG on the sand next to him. He stays behind while Tony hugs Peter and then MJ.

“Glad to see you’re alright,” Tony comments. “Got a little antsy waiting to hear from you two.”

“Got here in the knick of time,” Peter admits, laughing a little. “Thank you, Tony.” He turns towards Wade and can’t help but snort when he sees the bandage on Wade’s arm. “Nice accessory.”

“Yeah, uh. Bullet grazed my arm.” Wade spots the injury on Peter’s forehead. “You?”

“Cliff grazed my face,” Peter says, smirking. “How’d you lose Harry?”

“Lead him into one of Avery’s traps.”

“Smart.” Peter nods and bites his bottom lip, feeling awkward.

“Hey, Tony, I have a question for you,” MJ says suddenly, voice cutting through the tense atmosphere. She puts a hand on Tony’s shoulder and leads him away without another word.

Peter sighs softly, quietly thanking MJ for giving them space. Wade, for his part, just looks conflicted.

“Listen, Pete--”

“Don’t,” Peter says softly. “I understand you not telling me about the cancer, okay? I’ve never once been upset with you about that, no matter what. I get your reasoning. And, well, I can’t be mad about you staying away while you were Deadpool, knowing everything now. But… Wade, you have to see things from my perspective, too. You lied to me this entire time. About bringing me here, about this whole thing. You worked with Harry for  _ two years _ before even coming to me.”

“I get that,” Wade says, scratching the back of his neck. “I swear I’ve been meaning to tell you, there was just never a good time for it.”

Peter presses his lips together as he lets out a sigh. “Okay,” he says softly, not knowing how else to reply. Before he turns to head towards where MJ and Tony are, he steps in, rises up on his tiptoes, and presses a quick kiss to the corner of Wade’s mouth. “Good talk.”

“Good talk,” Wade repeats in awe.

MJ gives him a curious look when they join back up with them. She eventually smiles when Peter gives her a nod and a small smile. “So, what do we do now?”

“Avery’s ship is in the scary mountain,” Wade says, pointing towards the Jaguar-esque mountain in the distance. “I gave them the long route.”

“I thought we were getting off of this island,” Tony interrupts, irritated. “My plane is in the opposite direction of the mountain.”

“Peter and Wade can go there,” MJ says suddenly. “Tony and I can wait in the plane. It’ll be helpful if we need a quick getaway or anything.” She looks at Peter pointedly. “Finish it out, yeah?”

He opens his mouth to protest, but MJ is giving him one of her  _ looks _ , and he snaps his mouth shut. Tony doesn’t say anything else, but looks annoyed. And Wade simply looks excited.

“Yeah, alright. We’ll try to signal you guys if we need the help,” Peter says, leaning forward to kiss her cheek. “Thank you.”

“Go get ‘em, tiger,” MJ says, giving his hand a quick squeeze.

Peter grins and heads off in the direction Wade suggested.

**~*~**

Wade’s hand is warm in his. Peter’s heart is racing in his chest in a way he never felt with MJ, despite their numerous attempts to make a relationship work. The pathway to the mountain is free of Shoreline mercs, but they both know it’s because they’re all heading on a different route.

They eventually have to let go of each other’s hands when they reach the opening of the cave. Avery’s ship is hopefully somewhere below them, so Peter carefully leads them down. He can’t help but pause when the path opens up into a cave at the bottom, letting them out just above a true sight to behold.

“The Fancy,” Peter breathes out in shock.

“Shit,” Wade says from somewhere near him. “They beat us here.”

Peter can see Shoreline boating in and out of the opening that connects the cave to the sea. Despite that, the two of them have an advantage coming in from above. No one will be expecting it.

Shaking his head, Peter secures his grappling hook in the stone and tosses the rope over the edge. He shimmies down with Wade right after him, going as far as they can before they have to drop down into the water below.  He meets Wade's eyes and presses a finger to his lips. Wade nods in understanding and they duck under the waves, swimming silently towards the dock. Once they’re underneath the rotting wooden planks and completely out of sight, Peter resurfaces just in time to hear Gwen and Harry, peeking up at them through the slats of the boards.

“Most of my men are dead, Harry, and those who aren’t have already left,” Gwen says, sounding angry.

“Can’t you see that ship? The end is literally in sight,” Harry hisses back.

“That maniac pirate of yours has rigged the entire ship with booby traps. I’m not setting foot on it.” Gwen turns to talk to a merc when Harry reaches forward to grab her wrist. 

“If you cut and run right now, Gwen, the loss of all of your men, and everything we’ve done, will be for nothing.”

Gwen shakes him off and glares him down. “We have  _ millions  _ in gold right now. I’d say, plus our lives, it’s worth enough.”

Harry scoffs. “No wonder so many of your men abandoned you.”

Gwen glares at him coldly. “Excuse me?”

“We’re on the verge of making history here, and you’re willing to walk away with  _ pocket change  _ compared to what’s on that boat. And Peter and Wade are somewhere on this damn island, on their way right now--”

“If they can make it off that ship alive and with the gold, I’d say they’ve earned it,” Gwen snaps.

Harry slaps Gwen across the face. “Look we can sit here and insult each other all day, or we can--”

Their argument is cut off by the sound of a speedboat. Peter looks around for Wade and finds him missing, but not missing because he’s the one driving the boat. He can’t help but grin and shake his head. He misses the rest of Gwen and Harry’s argument as they climb into another boat with a mercenary who drives them back to the ship.

Peter holds his breath and slips back underwater, swimming unnoticed until he’s at the other end of the dock so he can climb up. There aren’t any other mercs, but his relief is short-lived when an explosion fills the air and smoke starts rising from Avery’s ship.

“Shit,” Peter curses, looking for another boat to use and finding none. He jumps back into the water and swims quickly towards the ship.

The ship’s on fire as he climbs into a blown-out hole in the side, making it both hard to see and breathe. Peter coughs softly and walks carefully through the wreckage for any sign of Wade. On his way, Peter happens upon the rest of the treasure still sitting on the ship.

“There’s your treasure,” Peter murmurs, running his hand over one of the elaborate gold pieces. He’s snapped back into attention when he hears coughing coming from nearby.

He follows the coughing into a small room filled with even more treasure. What looks like jail cells are filled with more gold and jewels, along with large bundles hanging dangerously from the ceiling.

“Wade?” Peter calls out, hearing the coughing again.

“Hey, Pete.”

Peter pulls his gun out as Harry comes out of the smoke from the room. He gives another cough as he points his own gun at Peter.

“Where’s Wade?” Peter demands, eyes narrowing.

Harry steps to the side, revealing a passed out Wade laying underneath a fallen support beam. “Don’t worry, the idiot can’t die. What a shame, if you ask me.”

Peter swallows thickly, looking over at Wade. It’s hard to even feel the excitement of finding the treasure anymore. The thrill he thought was there is completely gone, filled with nothing but wanting to be next to Wade. Preferably far away from Harry.

“You can have the treasure, okay? Just let me take Wade and leave,” Peter begs.

“After everything? You think I’m just going to let you walk away?” Harry lets out a slightly maniac laugh. “Not happening, Parker.”

“We all stay here any longer and we’re all dead. Is that really what you want?”

Gwen walks in then, her gun aimed at Peter. “Hand it over.”

“You really think you can trust him, huh? He’s turned on two people already,” Peter says, looking over at Gwen.

“That isn’t your concern,” Gwen replies flatly. Peter clenches his teeth and gives in, handing his gun to her.

“What are you trying to instigate, Peter? Gwen and I are partners, and I don’t screw over my partners. But you two…” Harry chuckles, moving to stand next to Gwen. Peter moves so he’s standing protectively in front of Wade opposite of the two. “From the start, you  _ took advantage  _ of my generosity. You tried cutting me out and-- What are you doing?”

Gwen has the barrel of her gun pressed against Harry’s head, looking pissed off. “Now it’s your turn. Give me your gun.”

“Gwen…”

She cocks her gun. “I won’t ask again.”

“You are being profoundly stupid right now,” Harry says, giving his gun to Gwen.

“Look over there,” Gwen says, gesturing towards a couple of skeletons.

“Gwen, stop screwing ar-- Jesus!” Harry yelps and takes a step back when Gwen shoots at his feet.

“I said look!”

“It’s just a couple of skeletons,” Harry says, looking irritated with Gwen. “So what?”

“I may not be as good at history as you two boys, but I’ve got a pretty good idea who those two are,” Gwen states flatly.

“It’s Avery and Tew,” Peter realises. “They killed each other.”

“What’s the point?” Harry snaps.

“Everyone obsessed with this treasure gets what they deserve.” She keeps her gun pointed at the two men.

“So you’re just going to leave us here to die?” Harry asks, looking even more angry.

“Oh, I’m just leaving. Whether you die or not, I don’t really care.” With that, she closes the door to the room and seals it shut.

“Gwen! Get back here and open the door, dammit!” Harry shouts, rushing over to try and pull it open. He pounds at the door when it doesn’t budge

“She’s gone, Harry. Help me with Wade and I’ll help you open the door,” Peter says, turning towards Wade and trying to lift the beam.

Harry grabs the sword running through the skeletal remains of Tew and inspects the rusted blade. “I won’t be able to enjoy a single coin from this treasure knowing you and that worthless  _ mutt  _ are still sucking air.”

Peter takes a step back, hands raised. “C’mon, Harry, don’t be stupid. This is insane, even for you.”

Harry takes a swing at Peter, who dodges, just in time. “You want to hear insane?  _ ‘Peter Parker raced a madman and his entire army to the steps of Shambhala _ ’.” He snarls and swings again, and Peter jumps out of the way. “‘ _ Peter Parker found a lost city in the middle of the Rub’ al Khali desert’ _ .”

“C’mon, Harry, stop!” Peter begs, wincing when he’s not quick enough and gets a large cut across his arm.

“‘ _ Peter Parker discovered the fabled El Dorado _ .’” Harry swings up instead of down, and gets Peter across the stomach. “‘ _ Peter Parker is a legend _ ’. You know, I shot the man who told me that.”

“I get it, okay! You don’t like me very much,” Peter says, rolling to the side and backing away from the insane man.

“For all your ‘greatness’, Pete, you have nothing. You  _ are  _ nothing. You’re a washed up journalist at a gossip magazine,” Harry seethes as he approaches. “You care so much about that parade of losers of yours, and I’m going to make sure they join you.”

Angry now, Peter makes a grab for the sword in Avery’s body and positions himself in front of a now smirking Harry. “En garde, dickhead.”

“C’mon, ‘ _ legend _ ’,” Harry taunts before swinging.

Peter raises his sword to block it and takes a small step back before taking a swing of his own. Harry has years of fencing behind him, and he easily turns every dodge into an attack. It’s taking everything in Peter to keep Harry at bay.

Peter spends most of the fight on the defense, blocking Harry’s intense and brutal attacks until his arm is numb with it. Despite all of Harry’s taunting, he’s feeling more desperate than angry now. He just needs -  _ wants _ \- to get him and Wade out of there.

One final, harsh swing breaks Peter’s sword and Harry is on him immediately, pushing him down to the ground and pointing the blade down at his neck. “Underneath all the bravado, you’re nothing but a sad little boy with delusions of grandeur. Who, by the way, can’t fence for shit,” Harry sneers and presses the tip of the blade against Peter’s throat. It digs in, threatening to pierce the skin if Peter so much as makes the slightest movement. “I’ve had everything handed to me on a goddamn silver platter. But this? I’ve earned this.  _ All of it. _ ”

Peter looks widely around the room, moving as little as possible, and hoping for a miracle. He spots a rope near his head that leads up towards one of the hanging bundles. An idea unfolds. 

He swallows before speaking. “You want the treasure so badly, Harry? It’s all yours.” 

Peter swings his broken sword towards the rope above his head, cutting it cleanly. Harry leans back to look and his sword lifts just enough for Peter to roll away in time. The bundle lands right on top of Harry, scattering treasure everywhere as it falls open. 

“Holy shit.” 

He takes a moment to stare, though he doesn’t feel much remorse in having just (essentially) killed his former friend. Peter shakes himself out and turns to the more important things at hand. 

He hurries over towards the beam lying on top of Wade, relieved to find that he’s coming to. The beam doesn’t budge when Peter braces against it and tries lifting it.

“Pete!” Wade coughs and squints up at him through the smoke and dust. “Leave me. I’ll come back in a bit and meet you on the shore.” 

“Just because you can come back doesn’t mean I want you to die in the first place,” Peter says, desperate.

“Peter, this place is going to blow!”

A lightbulb goes off in Peter’s head and he glances around until he spots a cannon in the corner. He grins. “That’s it!”

There are a few pieces of debris lying around, flickering with the fire from the first explosion. Peter grabs a board that’s still on fire. Using it, he lights the end of the wick on the cannon and aims it towards the wall. He turns away and covers his ears as it blasts a hole in the side of the ship. The room quickly fills with water in a rush, knocking against the beam. Using the rising water to help and both of them pushing at it they’re able to lift the beam off of Wade.

The ship is sinking at a remarkable rate, and the water level rises above their head. Even still, now that they’re both safe and alive, and Harry and Gwen aren’t on their asses anymore, Peter feels an overwhelming urge to kiss Wade. Now isn’t the time, however, and Peter quickly makes his way across the room, gesturing for Wade to follow him. They slip out of the hole and swim towards the opening of the cave where it meets the ocean.

Behind them, the rest of Avery’s ship collapses in a heap of fire. When they climb up on the shore in the open light of day, they’re surprised to find MJ ready and waiting for them. She helps them up and fires a flare into the sky as soon as they’re in the clear.

**~*~**

Peter feels a lot better in a fresh pair of  _ dry  _ clothes. He knows Wade feels the same as he stretches out on the hotel bed. After the hell they went through earlier, they had to check into a hotel under MJ’s name. 

Gwen is still out there, and they have no idea where she is or if they’ll see her again, but they’re all too tired to care. That’s something to think about another day, after they get some well deserved rest and fly back to New York City in the morning.

MJ and Tony are out getting food, leaving Peter and Wade alone in the room. Peter sits next to Wade and lightly pokes him in the stomach.

“I’m really glad you came back,” Peter admits softly. “I've really missed you.”

Wade sits up, his face quickly morphing into one of guilt. “I’m so sorry I didn’t come to you sooner.”

“Hey, it’s okay.” Peter gives him a soft smile. “No need to dwell on it anymore, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Wade whispers.

Peter chews on his bottom lip before sighing. “You know… I’ve kinda had a crush on you since I met you in the museum.”

“The feeling’s mutual,” Wade says, beaming.

He gently cups Peter’s face as he leans forward. Peter melts into it, sighing happily as his lips move with Wade’s. It’s easily better than any treasure he’s ever found.

**Author's Note:**

> comments are much appreciated!! 💛
> 
> my [twitter](https://mobile.twitter.com/spidvrpool)


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